


Little Empires 3

by Formula_Tea



Series: Little Empires [6]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Family, Little Empires Universe, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Suicidal Thoughts, domestic abuse, references to accidents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-03-29 03:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 49,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3881002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Formula_Tea/pseuds/Formula_Tea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abandoned by his family, Adrian is kindly taken in by the Williams family, just so he can sort out his head after witnessing one of the worst accidents the assessments have seen in a long time. Felipe, Valtteri, and Susie are fine with this, until they find out what Adrian's non-phys power is.<br/>The McLaren family is finding it difficult to recover after the "Ferrari incident". Ron knows his family is falling apart, and he's got a feeling that the secret to fixing it is finding out Fernando's secret.<br/>There are problems at the Mercedes house, with Nico feeling abandoned and Toto being left to sort out that, and Susie on her mission to find Jev.<br/>And Ferrari are doing nothing suspicious which is itself suspicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sometimes Things Go Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter (and possibly later in the story too) references various crashes (Ayrton, Felipe, and Jules). It doesn't really go into too much detail at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning so that everybody's aware of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: What’s it like when things go wrong?
> 
> It’s not an easy question and neither of them look easy as they try to find an answer. Claire shakes her head and Rob comments that the question is “too broad”.
> 
> Question: Explain what the glitch is like.
> 
> Rob nods at the question, as if that’s any better, before answering.
> 
> “The glitch is pretty gut wrenching to be honest with you,” he says. “I mean, when it happens. It’s not that uncommon; there’s about a dozen or so every year. But you still panic, you know, and you can see why. I mean, when it’s any kid, yours or anybody else’s, your heart kind of stops for those couple of minutes whilst their brain restarts. It’s pretty scary. But then, every glitch that happens, they take ‘em away and they do scans on ‘em and every glitch they learn more about why it happens and everything. So, it’s scary but every glitch is one glitch closer to a cure, you know? But then when it’s your own kid… There’s a logical part of your brain that’s saying nothing bad’s gonna happen. Like I said, there are a dozen every year and they’re almost always ok. But then that huge panicking bit of your brain says that there’s a reason why it’s ‘almost always’ and not just ‘always’. There are a couple of kids that ain’t ok, and someone’s got to be one of those kids, so why not yours? It’s fuck- It’s scary. But then the five minutes are up and they’re back and it’s all ok again. Except when it’s not. And they don’t come back. And suddenly it don’t matter if it’s virtually always ok or not because it’s not ok now and every other kid that’s ever had a glitch doesn’t really matter. And then they come back a week later as if nothing’s happened and you want to kill them for giving you a bloody heart attack.”
> 
> Question: And what about the Reversal of Power?
> 
> “That’s not what happens,” Claire jumps in. “I mean, that might be what it looks like but scans of power possessors after a R.o.P show no signs of such a thing. And you would expect to see that kind of thing, and you just don’t. The scans don’t show any sign of it. One of the main differences between the glitch and R.o.P is that we know medically what goes wrong when power possessors glitch, but we don’t even have that for R.o.P. Which, I believe, is why the death rate is so high. Like Rob was saying, each glitch helps to develop our understanding, but the same isn’t true for R.o.P, sadly.”
> 
> Question: Can you explain what happens when an R.o.P occurs.
> 
> “I don’t want to go into that.”
> 
> Question: Do things go wrong outside assessments?
> 
> “Yeah,” Rob says. “And it’s probably even worse when they do, at home or out and about or whatever, because at the assessments you’ve got people whose jobs are to look out for that kind of thing and to control the situation or whatever, but outside of them, there’s none of that.”
> 
> “But they’re less common,” Claire adds. “We think the increase in pressure of the assessments might be one of the causes of glitches and R.o.P. We can’t be sure, but that would explain why more things go wrong at assessments than anywhere else.”

Sometimes things go wrong. There’s an accident at the assessment, and everyone waits, holding their breath, to see if it’s going to be ok. 

Sometimes things go wrong, and nobody knows that better than the Williams family.  
There are three causes of accidents at assessments. The first, and the one that causes the least damage, is out of control powers. One slip up can put a power possessor or assessor in hospital with a broken leg or fractured ribs. It’s hardly uncommon. In a field full of children and teenagers with magical powers, there’s a slip up every other assessment, very often involving one of the Lotus children. Most of the time, it’s nothing.

The second cause of accidents is something nicknamed the ‘glitch’. Something in the power possessor’s mind goes wrong for a moment. A fraction of a second is all it takes for the child’s body to go into shock, shutting down so the brain an effectively restart. It’s a scary moment, especially when the child doesn’t come out of the shut down state after the standard few minutes. Occasionally, the glitch has an impact on the power possessor for the rest of their lives, but usually it’s just a few weeks rehabilitation and they’re fine.

The third cause of accidents is reversal of power flow. The name itself is misleading, as there is no evidence that’s what causes the problems but it is what appears to happen. The power flow seems to reverse back onto the power possessor. It’s uncommon, but the chances of death if it does happen are high enough for everyone to be on stand by for it at assessments.

Sometimes – like today – that doesn’t seem to be good enough.

The last time a power possessor died at an assessment, Claire had been only a little older than Susie is now. One of the boys in her family had suffered a reversal of power flow. It was unexpected, but not as uncommon in those days, and Claire was always settled when she saw the large presence of medical teams at the assessments now she had her own children to worry about.

Not that they’re helping much today.

The last time something serious had gone wrong, it had been Rob panicking. A glitch had put Felipe in hospital and the usual few moments of shock had lasted days. Rob still isn’t sure if he blamed Ferrari’s experiments for the unusually long recovery time or if it was just one of those things. He didn’t like to think of it anymore. Whilst Felipe had no memory of the incident, he remembered every second and it didn’t make for pleasant viewing.

So, when everything goes strangely quiet and people start rushing over to where Adrian Sutil and Jules Bianchi had been practicing quietly a couple of seconds ago, the Williams family know better than anybody how bad it can be.

 

A couple of weeks later…

Rob finds Claire in the kitchen, doing her best to get the burnt part of the chicken from the tray. The kids are all upstairs, doing their best to stay away from the washing up.

“We need to talk,” Rob says, quietly.

“Can this wait,” Claire asks. Of course it can’t. Because nobody in this bloody house can do anything when she isn’t busy.

“Not really,” Rob says. He falls into one of the chairs at the table, the phone still in his hand.

Claire sighs, annoyed, and turns to face him. “What is it?”

“The Saubers,” Rob says, nodding down to the chair opposite him for Claire to sit down. She does, grabbing a tea towel to dry her hands. The look on Rob’s face is a little worrying. The accident at the assessment effected them all, and Claire’s doing her best to remember that. “They’re… they’re saying they can’t keep Adrian anymore.”

“What?”

Rob nods. He’d been as disgusted as Claire is when he’d found out, but another family’s family was their own business, and he knew better than to interfere with that.

“What are they going to do?” Claire asks.

“They want him gone as soon as possible,” Rob says. “They’ve got some new boys, or something like that. Adrian’s powers have been… _difficult_ to control since the accident.”

“Of course they’re difficult to control,” Claire snaps.

“Don’t get annoyed at me, Claire, I’m just as pissed off as you,” Rob says. He doesn’t understand how you could just kick out a child after they’d witnessed what Adrian had. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right, but they can try to help. “They don’t want him damaging the new boys. The connection was shaky to begin with and Monisha says there’s nothing there.”

Claire rolls her eyes. She’s had enough dealings with Monisha for the Indian woman to have left a lasting impression on her.

“They’re going to take him to the House,” Rob says.

“They’re not even looking for a family?” Claire asks, disgusted.

Rob shakes his head. As much as they like to argue about everything and anything, he and Claire agree on most of the important things. He hopes that means she’ll go through with his plan as well.

“A kid needs a family around them,” Claire says, shaking her own head. “Especially after that. How do they expect Adrian to get better if he’s just dumped at the House?”

Sure, they’ll look after him there. Claire knows they’re very nice people there who will make sure he gets the care and the tutoring and assessments he needs, but it’s nothing compared to an actual family, and that’s what will really make Adrian better again. 

“This is… _wrong_ …”

“I know,” Rob says. “That’s why I was thinking… letting him stay here. Just until he gets his head sorted out and his powers back under control.”

“No.”

As much as she wants to help the poor child, they cannot do that. They’ve already put Valtteri, Felipe, and Susie through enough with Jean-Eric and the mess with the McLaren boys. They are not bringing in another power possessor, and especially not one they don’t even have a connection with.

“He needs a family, Claire, you said so yourself,” Rob says, trying not to raise his voice. “And it wouldn’t be permanent. Just until he feels well enough to go someplace else. We’ll look around for a family for him.”

“That isn’t our job,” Claire says.

“No, it isn’t,” Rob says. “But we both know what it’s like. We can’t let him be abandoned.”

Claire nods, because – as much as she hates it when this is the case – Rob’s right. But… she has to look after her own family first. As much as she wants to help Adrian out, she needs to know her own kids are ok first. 

“We ask the kids first,” she says. She does not want another repeat of Jean-Eric. 

Rob nods, knowing exactly what she’s thinking.

 

“He’ll come down, Toto,” Susie says. She’s lying on her back, mobile in one hand whilst the other reaches up to the ceiling for something she can’t see. “You know what they’re like.”

“I know what they are like, but he is not normally like this,” Toto says. He sounds worried. He’s never worried, but this has gotten him scared. Susie understands. Sort of. Nico and Lewis are constantly at each other’s throats and it’s Toto who has to deal with that.

“Leave him to it,” Susie says, used to being in Nico’s position. “He’ll realise he’s being an idiot and stop soon enough. Don’t worry.”

It feels strange, Toto having a problem for a change rather than her. Usually, it’s him telling her to calm down and what to do to resolve the situation.

“Yes, but what if he does not,” Toto says.

“Does not what?”

“What if he does not realise he is being an idiot?” Toto asks.

“He will,” Susie insists. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Yes, because I told you,” Toto points out.

“Yeah, but Nico won’t listen to you, will he?” Susie says. “He’s a clever boy, Toto. He’ll figure it out. He’s probably just saying it to get some attention from you.”

“Susie can you-?”

“WHY CAN’T YOU KNOCK ROB!”

Rob quickly leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Valtteri and Felipe smirk at him from across the hallway. 

“You two just go down the bloody stairs,” Rob huffs, running a hand through his hair. He knocks on Susie’s bedroom door as they boys pass him, waits a couple of seconds for Susie to call him inside.

The teenager is sat on her bed, glaring at him, when Rob opens the door. 

“What do you want?”

“Can you come down stairs please?” Rob asks. “Your mother and I need to talk to you?”

“What is this about?” Susie asks, suspiciously.

“You’ll find out when you come down stairs,” Rob says.

Susie knows what this is about. She isn’t an idiot. It’s the exact same way they told her about Jean-Eric. But there’s no getting out of this either, and Susie follows Rob down the stairs, only to find the boys and Claire already in the kitchen.

“What’s the matter?” Susie asks. Again, she doesn’t sit, choosing to stand in the doorway so neither of her parents can stop her marching out of the room.

“It’s…”

“Has something happened with Jules?” Felipe asks, quickly, recognising the look on Rob’s face.

“No, there’s no news on Jules,” Claire says, quickly. They don’t need to upset anybody over that.

“It’s Adrian, actually,” Rob says, following Claire’s lead. He looks between the three children, waiting for some reaction. He can tell Susie’s figured out what’s going on, but she still hasn’t decided if this is a good thing or not. Felipe’s thoughts are quiet, but buzzing. Waiting. And Valtteri… Rob isn’t sure how Valtteri’s managed to hide his thoughts from him, but he has no idea what the thin is thinking. “The Saubers don’t think he should stay with them anymore. And…”

“You want to take him in,” Susie says, folding her arms.

“Yes,” Claire says. “But only temporarily. And only if you guys agree.”

“What do you mean temporarily?” Valtteri asks. “You do not think he is one of us?”

“No,” Claire says. “We don’t. But Adrian needs a family around him whilst he’s recovering.”

“Is not Adrian that is recovering, though,” Felipe mutters. 

“Felipe, you know as well as anyone that it isn’t just the person hurt who has to recover,” Rob says, sternly. He loves Felipe, but sometimes the Brazilian could be an idiot. Felipe hangs his head, knowing better than to argue with Rob about this point.

“So?” Claire asks. 

“We’re not going to do anything you don’t want us to do,” Rob says.

Valtteri looks up at Susie, trying to judge his sister’s attitude. He’s not going to be for anything Susie isn’t. It’ll only cause problems for all of them.

“Where does he go if he does not come here?” Felipe asks.

“The House, probably,” Claire says. 

“So why does he have to come here?” Valtteri asks. They’d gone on and on about how good and nice it was at the House when they’d sent Jean-Eric over to live there. Why is now any different?

“Because he needs care and love around him at times like this,” Claire says. 

Susie rolls her eyes. At least they’re not trying to pretend he might be part of the family.

“So?” Rob asks.

“Alright,” Felipe says. They’ll only try guilting them if they say no. And it couldn’t be that bad to have Adrian stay with them, if it was only for a little while.

“Valtteri? Susie?”

Valtteri is still watching his sister, waiting to see her answer before Claire and Rob try to bully her into agreeing with them.

“Alright,” Susie says, holding up her hands. She probably isn’t going to be spending much time here, with Toto’s own problems becoming more of a priority.

“Seems good to me,” Valtteri says, nodding.

“Great,” Rob says, beaming. “I’ll phone Monisha.”

“Can we go now?” Susie asks.


	2. Uncommon Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When you are training to become a tutor, you learn about all kinds of powers," Andrea says. "Physical powers and non-Physical. But some do not fall simply between the two. They are uncommon. And sometimes, it is not such a good thing to have them. Some people, sometimes your own family would take advantage of some of the rarest powers, not caring for the well fare of the power possessor that possesses them."

“Fernando, you need to focus,” Andrea says. He shakes his head at the teenager, falling into a chair whilst Fernando sits on his bed. “Fernando?”

“I can do it,” Fernando says. “Let me try.”

“Am not going to let you try when you are in this mood, Fernando,” Andrea says, gently. Fernando knows why he won’t. It’s one of the rules they both agreed on when they started working together. He isn’t to go inside anybody else’s mind whilst he doesn’t have control of his own. “What’s the matter? What is distracting you, hmmm?”

Fernando shakes his head. He doesn’t want to talk about it.

Andrea sighs, moving from the chair to sit beside the teenager. He’s been tutoring Fernando long enough to know what is going on inside his head better than anybody. He knows Fernando hadn’t wanted to come back to the McLaren family. They hadn’t left on the best of terms and Fernando had been nervous about coming back. But that is all in the past now. He’s been with the family for months, just fine. He doesn’t need to be worried.

“What is the matter?”

“It’s nothing,” Fernando insists. “I am fine. Really. Let me try.”

“Maybe we should focus on your non-phys today?” Andrea suggests.

“My non-phys is fine,” Fernando says, darkly, annoyed at himself more than anything. He had almost perfected his physical power when Ferrari had kicked him out and he knows – he _knows_ – being away from them is more important than being able to control his powers, but he hates how much further behind he’s gone since his last trip to the labs.

“Maybe,” Andrea says. “But you have to do something and I am not letting you inside my head today, Fernando. So non-phys it is.”

 

Ron knows he has to do something.

Things have been different since the Ferrari incident. Neither of the boys have come to speak to him about it, and he guesses it’s better this way. Rob says Ferrari are clever, and they’ll use any excuse to get back to what they were doing before. If nobody in the house says anything on the subject at all, they can’t be blamed for anything Ferrari do.

Fernando has been quieter. He had not exactly been the most talkative of people before the Ferrari incident, glued to his phone and staring at the screen all day. But he’s been even quieter than usual since whatever happened in Italy happened. Smaller. The old Fernando is gone, and Ron isn’t entirely sure what to make of the new one.

Jenson is the same. Around Ron and around his brothers, he’s still the same Jenson, but Ron’s seen him when he’s alone, when he thinks nobody’s looking. Even _Kevin_ seems to have been effected, knowing not to bother his brothers so much anymore.

Ron doesn’t like it. The house is too quiet. Something needs to be done.

 

“ _Biff shook her head. She did not think Chip was right.”_

Jenson turns the page of Kevin’s reading book, his eyes glazed over whilst he listens to his little brother read. Ron’s watching them both from across the room, his work left forgotten on his lap. There was a time when he would know exactly what was going on in his boys’ minds, but that’s gone now. He’s not sure what’s happened to his powers, if the connection is weaker or if he just isn’t using them well enough. If you don’t use it, you lose it and everything. Ron doesn’t want to add that onto his list of things he needs to worry about, but it looks like he might have to.

 _“Kipper did not know what to think._ ”

Fernando appears in the living room doorway with his tutor behind him. They’ve been taking longer and longer recently, but it hasn’t had any effect in the assessments. He’s trying, Ron thinks. He has to give him that.

“Am going now,” Andrea says, patting Fernando’s shoulder. “Bye.”

Fernando bites his lip, not looking back at his tutor as he leaves. He knows it’s no good. Andrea isn’t going to change his mind. Not now, anyway. The next time he comes around, Fernando will start his nagging again. He’ll wear Andrea down.

“You want the remote, Fernando?” Ron asks, offering it to Fernando.

Fernando shakes his head. “Am going back upstairs.”

“You can sit with us, Fernando,” Ron says, smiling.

Fernando just shivers. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to be here at all.

“Know this,” Fernando says. He doesn’t bother smiling, trying to convince them he’s ok when it’s clear he very much isn’t. “Am going back upstairs.”

Jenson watches Fernando go, not sure what he can say to get his brother to stay.

“Jenshon. Finished,” Kevin says, waving his book in his eldest brother’s face to snap him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah,” Jenson says, putting on a smile and taking the reading book back from Kevin. “Well done, mate. Well read.”

“Are supposed to ask me questions,” Kevin says.

“Don’t need to,” Jenson says, tapping Kevin on top of his head with his book. “You read it really well.”

Kevin rolls his eyes, unconvinced. “Am going to play outside. Do you want to play with me?”

“Not today, mate,” Jenson says, ruffling Kevin’s hair and getting a glare from him for it. “Maybe later, yeah.”

Kevin huffs, unimpressed. Jenson and Ron both watch him go, pretending everything’s ok when it clearly isn’t.

“Are you going to go and talk to Fernando?” Rob asks.

Jenson shakes his head. “Fernando needs to be left alone. He has a lot on his mind.”

He has no idea what exactly is going on in his brother’s mind, but he’s pretty sure it has something to do with the fact Jenson knows about his powers now. The powers he had been keeping a secret until Ferrari had ruined everything. And he can see _why_ Fernando would want to keep what he can do to himself, if people are going to treat him like Ferrari did. Fernando needs some time to be comfortable with other people – including his own brother – knowing about his powers. And Jenson’s going to give him that. He just hopes Ron will too.

“Someone needs to talk to him,” Ron says. “And you know I’m not going to get anything out of him.”

“What do you want to get out of him?” Jenson asks.

“Something is wrong with him, Jenson,” Ron says. He knows Jenson’s seen it. He wouldn’t be acting half as strangely as he is if he hadn’t. “And I can’t fix whatever’s wrong if he doesn’t tell me what it is.”

“He doesn’t need _fixing_ ,” Jenson says, shaking his head. He doesn’t know how there’s a connection between Ron and Fernando when it’s very clear the two of them don’t understand each other. He doesn’t doubt it’s _there_ of course, he just doesn’t know why it is. “He just needs space.”

Ron sighs, watching Jenson march out of the room and out of the house. He doesn’t bother calling after him. The boys have never listened to him.

It all comes back to Ferrari. It always does. Part of him wants to go over to Maurizio and Britta – living happily as if nothing has happened and they haven’t effectively broken up his family – and find out exactly what happened when his boys were kidnapped, but he knows neither of them are going to tell him the truth. He’s out of the loop, and he’s pretty sure the people in the loop aren’t going to voluntarily give over the information he needs. So he’s going to have to figure out a way to find it himself.

 

Fernando scrolls through the contacts on his phone hopelessly. The only people he _can_ talk to are people he doesn’t want to talk to, and the only people he wants to talk to can’t hear what he wants to talk to them about. People. One person. He sighs, rolling back over on the bed so he’s facing the ceiling, wishing he was anywhere but here.

It would be easier, if he could tell Ron about his powers. Isn’t that what parents are supposed to be for? To guide you and help you and look after you? Ha. Ron wouldn’t know guiding and helping and looking after someone if they punched him in the face. And Fernando knows if Ron ever finds out what his powers really are, he’ll be just as bad as Ferrari.

Andrea’s been helping him keep it a secret. Fernando doesn’t know where he would be if it wasn’t for the Italian. Probably in some laboratory somewhere. Probably going through the same kind of thing Ferrari had tried to put him through. Fumbling about in somebody else’s mind. Ruining their lives.

Fernando cringes and screws his eyes shut. He doesn’t want to think about it. Before… before he’d been taken by Ferrari, he’d found it much easier to ignore what his powers really were. He’d never had to think about what they could do. Now, it was all that was going through his mind.

He wonders what would happen if his friends actually knew what he could do. Jenson hasn’t been speaking to him since they’d been taken. Now that he knows what Fernando really is. And Fernando doesn’t really blame him. If it were the other way around, Fernando wouldn’t want anything to do with Jenson.

No. Nobody else can find out about his powers.


	3. Unconventional Families

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's not exactly 'unusual'," Toto explains. "Sometimes you have families with parents that are of a more... 'conventional' age for the children, and sometimes you do not. I don't know why these things work out the way they do for some and not for others, but that is the way it is. I wouldn't change things. All families are different. They all have their ups and downs, but they all work. You don't need a "mum" and a "dad" for that."

“Pastor! Romain! Down stairs! Now!”

Romain rolls his eyes, folding over the page in the book he’s reading. He hasn’t heard any crashing or screaming, so his brother can’t have done anything that bad. He doesn’t see why he needs to go and sit through the lecture every time Pastor does anything, but he gets up anyway.

Pastor’s waiting on the landing to shoot a glare in his direction when he comes out of his room.

“I have not done anything,” Romain says, defensively.

“I ‘ave not done anything,” Pastor mimics in a poor French accent. Romain just shakes his head, ignoring his brother as he heads down the stairs to see what Gerard wants.

Jolyon and Adderly are already down the stairs and both turn their heads when their older brothers come down. Both older boys stop when they see who else is in the room.

“Romain, Pastor, this is Carmen,” Gerard says, proudly, standing behind the little girl.

“No,” Pastor says, heading back up the stairs. He already has to chair his parent’s attention with three brothers. He does not want another sibling.

Carmen’s bottom lip begins to wobble and she looks up at Gerard.

“It’s ok,” Gerard insists, gently, hoping she isn’t about to start crying. “Don’t worry, darling.”

“Yeah,” Romain says, used to apologising for his eldest brother’s actions. “He is like that with everyone. I’m Romain.” He holds out his hand for Carmen to shake it. The little girl just looks at it, then back up at Gerard. He just nods, enthusiastically.

“Hello,” Carmen says, quietly, shaking Romain’s hand.

“Is she staying here?” Romain asks Gerard. Jolyon and Adderly stay with Gerard’s friend Nick.

“Yeah,” Gerard says. “We think that is the best idea, don’t we?”

“Uh huh,” Carmen says proudly.

“Well, Pastor is not going to be happy about this,” Romain says, heading back up the stairs.

 

“You always take his side,” Nico snaps, marching up the stairs. He reminds Toto a lot of Susie sometimes, slamming the door shut, and Toto wants to slam his head off of the kitchen counter. If he was more like Susie, though, Toto would be better at handling the stroppy teenager.

Niki opens his eyes for a couple of seconds to see what all the noise is about, then closes them again. Toto rolls his eyes. He’ll have to deal with the boys himself, as always.

Lewis is in the kitchen, pretending he hasn’t done anything wrong when he _knows_ it’s his fault. He’s not even very good at hiding it, grinning behind his hand whilst he flicks through some magazine, head phones covering his ears. Toto doesn’t bother to disturb him, crossing the room to Nico’s cupboard.

“Getting princess one of his cupcakes?” Lewis asks, pulling his head phones down so they’re around his neck.

“Do not start, Lewis,” Toto says. He can’t say he blames Nico too much. Sometimes he feels like running away from the pair of them. But he has a role to play, and it isn’t one he can just get out of.

He pulls the half empty pack of cakes from the cupboard, putting one on a plate before returning the pack to the cupboard. Lewis is still watching him when he turns back around, still grinning behind his hand, and Toto would roll his eyes if it wasn’t so childish.

“I need to talk to you later,” he says as he leaves, hoping it sounds as ominous as he wants to.

“Yeah, whatever,” Lewis calls after him, and Toto doesn’t need to look back to know he’ll have his headphones back on and have his feet up on the table.

Toto just ignores him, marching angrily past Niki – he won’t say anything, but he can be passive aggressive all he wants – and up the stairs.

Nico’s bedroom door is still shut but, thankfully, there isn’t music blasting out of speakers coming from inside, so Toto guesses that’s a good thing. He knocks gently on the door and, when he gets no answer, tries to open it, but the door’s locked.

“Nico,” he calls softly.

“Go away.”

Toto rolls his eyes this time, now nobody can see him, and leans against the wood, wishing he’d been more firm when he’d said the boys shouldn’t have locks on their doors.

“Nico,” he says again. “I brought cake.”

“Have you kicked Lewis out?” Nico asks.

“No, I have not kicked Lewis out.”

“Then I’m not coming out,” Nico says. Something slams against the door, making Toto jump away from it. Why Nico feels the need to be so over dramatic, he doesn’t know, but Lewis is the same.

“Don’t be silly, Nico,” Toto tries again, leaning against the door again. He tries the handle as if it’s going to move this time, but the door’s still locked.

“Don’t be silly _Nico_ ,” Nico mimics. “ _I_ am not. _I_ am being perfectly reasonable. You shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be solving the cause of this fucking problem.”

“Please don’t swear,” Toto says. He supposed to be the parent and Nico and Lewis need to be reminded of that sometimes.

“I’ll swear all I fucking want,” Nico says. “I am not the one in the wrong here.”

“It was just a stupid little argument,” Toto says.

“Yes, and _I_ was right,” Nico snaps. “And you take his side. Because you always take his side.”

“I wasn’t taking anybody’s side,” Toto says. At least they’re talking now, even if there is a door between the two of them. “I am sorry you thought that.”

“Don’t treat me like I am stupid,” Nico snaps, and there’s a thump as something else hits the door. “You took his side. Again. I know you like him more than me, Toto. You don’t have to deny it. You could try hiding it a little though.”

“I don’t like either of you,” Toto says, and he’s sure he can hear a huffed laugh on the other side of the door. “Come and open the door so I can give you this cake. Please?”

Nico doesn’t answer and Toto has his ear pressed against the door when the door opens and he almost falls inside, much to Nico’s amusement.

“Don’t tell Susie that happened,” Toto says.

“Something needs to change,” Nico says, shutting the door again once Toto is inside and sitting on the bed.

“I know it’s been tough for you,” Toto begins, handing Nico the cake like a peace offering. “But things will start to feel better.”

“When?” Nico says. “I can’t just sit around and let you treat him like he’s some kind of saviour whilst you just ignore me. That’s not a family.”

“And that’s not what’s happening,” Toto says, but Nico shakes his head.

“You never listen to me,” he says. “How do you expect things to get better if you don’t listen to what’s wrong?”

“There _is_ nothing wrong,” Toto insists. He laughs and hopes it will encourage Nico to lighten up a little, but he doesn’t have much hope. “Brothers fight all the time.”

“And brothers are convinced they’re not part of the family all the time, are they?” Nico snaps back. He wants Toto out of his room again but he knows he probably won’t be able to get the other boy out by himself.

“You don’t mean that, Nico,” Toto says.

“I do,” Nico says. “I want to look for another family, because I do not feel any connection anymore.”

 

Romain knows it’s going to be his job to speak to Pastor. It’s always his job. He’s not entirely sure what he’s supposed to say though. He knows Gerard can’t help it if they all have a connection, but Gerard should know by now that bringing in a new kid without even _talking_ to them first is going to put Pastor in a mood.

He should probably tell Pastor that the girl is going to be staying with them rather than Nick before he discovers it for himself, but Romain doesn’t see why he always ends up being the one to tell Pastor about these things. He isn’t the only family he has.

“Pastor?”

Pastor’s door is pretty much permanently locked and today is no exception.

“Pastor, let me in.”

There’s no answer, of course, and Romain sighs before making the lock click open. The door swings open of it’s own accord.

“Thought you have been told to stop doing that,” Pastor shoots his brother a glare from his bed.

“And I thought _you_ have been told to not be such an asshole,” Romain says. “She is not going away, you know. And sulking about it isn’t going to change anything.”

“Do not start lecturing me,” Pastor says.

“Am not trying to,” Romain says. “Am just telling you that you are being an idiot. Want things to change but you do not do anything to make them change.”

“Do that and I get kicked out,” Pastor points out, sitting up.

Romain laughs and is glad to see a smile on his brother’s face. “No, trying to kill someone gets you kicked out. Do not think that is a good plan of action. Maybe could try getting to know Carmen?”

“And what good will this do?” Pastor asks.

“Maybe you will hate her a little less this way?” Romain suggests.

Pastor’s smile is gone now and he gives Romain an unamused scowl that makes the French boy laugh. His brother’s laugh makes the edges of Pastor’s mouth twitch, but he refuses to smile.

“She will stay with Nick,” he says, shaking his head. “Will hardly ever see her.”

“She’s staying here,” Romain says.

“We haven’t room,” Pastor says.

“Yeah we do,” Romain says. “There is the spare room.”

“Games room,” Pastor corrects him.

“Carmen’s room now, I think,” Romain says.

Pastor groans and Romain leaves the room laughing. He doesn’t think he’s resolved the situation at all, but at least his brother’s aware of it now.

 

“You are too patient with him,” Niki says when Toto comes down the stairs.

It takes Toto too long to come up with a sarcastic comment to reply with, so he just shakes his head and falls onto the sofa in silence. He has history homework to do and he _would_ do it in his room but, whilst Nico is acting the way he is, he wants to be present if anything kicks off.

He’s halfway through copying out the paragraph needed for question three when Niki decides to share his wisdom again.

“If he does not want to be here, you cannot force him,” he says. “None of us will be happy if one of us is not.”

“He _belongs_ here,” Toto says, not looking up from his homework. He prefers Niki asleep. He’s about as much help then, and Toto doesn’t have to listen to his comments.

“Sometimes connections are not right,” Niki says.

“And sometimes people are stroppy teenagers who are angry because they do not get their own way,” Toto says. He shoots Niki a glare from over the text book and hopes that’s enough to make him stop.

“And you would know?” Niki chuckles.

“I am _surrounded_ by them,” Toto points out. He’s seriously considering heading upstairs to do his homework because he has a feeling Niki isn’t going to leave him in peace. He’ll wait and see how long the old man will go on for.

“I was a teenager at some point too you know,” Niki says.

“Yes, I think that decade is covered in the next chapter,” Toto says.

Niki smirks, impressed with the comment. The kid is learning. He has a feeling that might have something to do with Susie, but Niki likes to pretend it’s down to his own influence.

“Leave them to it and they will figure it out themselves,” Niki says. “It’s what brothers do.”

“They are going to kill one another before they figure it out themselves,” Toto says.

“You can’t smother them.”

“I am not smothering them,” Toto shoots Niki another glare. “I do not need a lecture about this from you, thank you Niki.”

“You are just a teenager yourself, Toto,” Niki reminds him.

“I am well aware of this fact.”

“So,” Niki says. “You were saying sometimes people are stroppy teenagers?”

Toto knows what Niki’s trying to say, but has decided to ignore it. He would _know_ if he was acting like Nico or Susie. He spends enough time around them, and he knows he’s being rational here.

Niki just smiles and shakes his head, opening the newspaper and finally leaving Toto to his homework.


	4. No Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whether there's a connection or not is not an easy thing to tell. Sometimes it's obvious, and there's just no connection. You can't *make* a connection. It isn't an emotional bond or anything like that. It can be imagined, yes, but not made or forced. It's more like compatibility than mutual love. People who are compatible, who share a connection, are more easily settled and their powers develop. People who aren't compatible but are very close physically (ie, living together) can do more harm than good to one another mentally, and that can sometimes lead to under development of powers, whether the two power possessors intend to harm one another or not. A lot of people think that's a one way street: that they'll be a more dominant power possessor who harms the less dominant, but that isn't the case. If one is negatively affected by the relationship, then it is almost always the case that the other is negatively affected too. Having power possessors without a connection living together is never an ideal scenario.

“How come, every time something like this happens, I am stuck in with you?” Felipe complains, helping Valtteri carry is things into the Finn’s bedroom to clear out the room for Adrian. “Is not fair.”

“You sleep in my bed most nights anyway,” Valtteri points out. They both know _why_ Rob and Claire do this, but it isn’t going to stop Felipe complaining anyway.

“Is not the point,” Felipe says. “Am fifteen. Need my own space.”

“What for?” Valtteri asks. He isn’t entirely sure if he wants to know the answer to that.

Felipe shrugs, blushing a little. “Stuff.”

“Had better not be doing any _stuff_ in my bed.”

“Don’t be disgusting,” Felipe snaps, dropping a pile of books onto Valtteri’s bed. “Not that kind of stuff.”

“Do not need to know,” Valtteri says, grinning.

Felipe rolls his eyes. The more he denies it, the worse it will be.

“When do you think they are going to get back?” he asks.

Valtteri shrugs. “Should not be that long, should it? Are only picking him up, aren’t they?”

“Suppose,” Felipe says. They’ve already been gone hours though.

The boys finish emptying the room for Adrian in an almost silence, Valtteri grumbling a little about how much stuff Felipe has. It’s only when they’ve both collapsed onto Valtteri’s bed that Susie comes down.

“If you are going to pretend to help now, you can piss off,” Felipe mutters, not looking up from the bed.

“I’m going out,” Susie announces.

“No,” Valtteri says, jumping up. “Wait until Claire and Rob get back.”

“I’m just going to see Jean-Eric,” Susie says. “I told him I’d go to visit him and I haven’t yet.”

“And so you are choosing today to go and see him?” Felipe asks.

He wishes Rob and Claire would stop leaving them alone with her, and then expecting her to still be here when they get back. If the adults can’t control her, Felipe doesn’t see how they expect him and Valtteri to.

“Yes,” Susie says. “There’s no law against it.”

“Can’t you wait until Rob and Claire get back?” Felipe asks. She knows they’ll get into trouble if they let her go out. He’s pretty sure that’s the only reason she’s chosen today to go out.

“No, if I do that, I’ll miss my bus,” Susie says. “Calm down, guys. It’s not as if I’m running away. I’ll be back before dinner and then I can give Adrian all the ‘family love’ he needs.”

She turns on her heel and heads down the stairs, not listening to her brothers calling after her. Felipe groans and falls back onto Valtteri’s bed.

“She is going to get us both killed one day,” he mumbles, before rolling onto his side and helping Valtteri find somewhere to put his things.

 

Adrian is quiet. He sits in the back of the car, his backpack on the seat beside him, staring out of the window, and neither Rob nor Claire know what to say. He hasn’t said a word since he left the Saubers and Claire had known before they even went to pick him up that there wasn’t going to be any connection, but it still unsettles her a little.

She glances over at Rob, who’s driving, expecting him to say something, but she knows he’s about as good at this kind of thing as she is. When she glances back at the teenager on the back seat, he’s watching them. Claire bites her lip, trying to think of something – _anything_ – to say.

“We’re thinking of going to the chippy for dinner today,” she says, deciding it’s best to play it safe. “You can go with Felipe and Valtteri to decide what you want, if you like?”

“Thank you,” Adrian says, quietly, his eyes back on the world outside.

Claire nods. Now she just has to come up with something else to say.

“You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” Rob says. “Or if there’s anything you can’t stand.”

“No, I’m ok,” Adrian says.

Rob glances over to Claire, hoping that gets him out of any further conversation.

They carry on in silence, nobody knowing how else to continue the conversation and make it back to the house without any major breakthroughs.

“We spoke to Susie and the boys,” Rob says as he opens the car door for Adrian. “They should be ok with you. They know what it’s like.”

Adrian looks up at Rob, about to reply, but he shakes his head and just gets out, following Claire to the door. Clare smiles weakly, hoping Rob’s right. The three of them had been bad enough around Jean-Eric. She doesn’t know how Adrian will handle them if they act the same way to him.

“Susie!” she calls up the stairs. “Boys! Can you come here please?”

“Do you want me to take your coat?” Rob asks, heaving Adrian’s suit case into the house after him.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Adrian says, slowly peeling off his coat and looking up the stairs, waiting for whoever was up there to come down. He isn’t really sure what to expect. He knows the boys back home – or what _was_ home – haven’t wanted anything to do with him since his powers went crazy. And he’s heard the stories of how Susie treated the last person that came to stay with the family. He just doesn’t want to be treated the same way.

There’s a thud from upstairs, and then Felipe and Valtteri appear on the landing, looking down. Claire smiles.

“Come down and say hello then?” she says, stepping aside so the boys have a little more space.

Valtteri leads the way down the stairs. They don’t have anything to worry about, other than the fact Susie’s missing and they’re going to get an earful for that as well. Adrian’s younger than both of them, and looks even more scared than Jean-Eric had been when he first arrived.

“Hello,” Felipe says, standing on the bottom step and giving Adrian a small wave.

“Hi,” Valtteri says. He looks between the new child and Claire and Rob. Claire’s still looking up the stairs, waiting for Susie to come down. “Is this all?”

“Adrian, this is Valtteri and Felipe,” Rob says.

“Where’s Susie?” Claire asks.

The boys exchange worried looks and Claire knows immediately she isn’t home. She bites her lip, not wanting to snap in front of Adrian. Adrian recognises the look though and steps back a little. Maybe things aren’t as happy here as Rob and Claire had been trying to make them out to be.

“Went to see Jean-Eric,” Felipe says quietly, not looking at Claire.

“Told her she should wait, but you cannot control Susie,” Valtteri says. “Do not know why you expect we can.”

“I guess so,” Claire says, quietly, still a little angry. She knows Susie’s been going on about seeing Jean-Eric for a while now, but she could have picked any other day. “Right, do you want to show Adrian where he can put his things?”

 

Susie waits impatiently on the doorstep to the House. It looks just like it had looked the last time she had come here, when they had abandoned Jean-Eric here as if it was a _good_ option. She knows that isn’t true, that they should have at least _looked_ to find Jean-Eric a family before leaving him here but, of course, nobody had listened to her then either.

Eventually, somebody answers the door, a boy Susie doesn’t recognise.

“Hi,” Susie says, a little nervous all of a sudden. “I’m… I’m looking for Jean-Eric.”

“Who?” the boy asks.

“Jean-Eric,” Susie says again. “Jev?”

“Ooh,” the boy says, slowly, nodding before turning back into the house. “Bruno!”

“What’s going on?” Susie asks, edging into the house as the boy goes inside to try to find Bruno.

“Nothing,” the boy says, the American twang to his voice beginning to annoy Susie already. “Just gonna go and find Bruno so he can sort you out.”

“Sort me out?” Susie asks, watching the boy race up the stairs. “I don’t need sorting out. I just came to see my-.”

The boy isn’t listening, disappearing up the stairs and leaving Susie alone in the hallway. The house is strangely quiet, and Susie isn’t sure what to make of it. She knows there’s quite a few kids living here, and her house is never this quiet.

Uncertainly, Susie peaks into the nearest room. Half a dozen heads turn away from a Mario Kart game to face her. Susie looks between each face, recognising a couple from some of the assessments from years ago, but none are Jean-Eric.

“Hello?” one boy says.

“Susie?” Bruno calls from behind her, making her jump. Bruno smiles trying to settle Susie like when they had been part of the same family. “Scott says you needed me?”

“No,” Susie says. “I came to see Jean-Eric.”

“Jean-Eric isn’t here,” Bruno says.

“What do you mean? Where is he?”

Bruno shrugs. “I have no idea, I can find out for you, if you want.”

Susie follows Bruno up the stairs, but she’s sure the Brazilian isn’t going fast enough. Jean-Eric is _six_. He can’t be let to go out alone, can he? What kind of place _is_ this place if they just let little kids wander around alone?

“I thought he would have told you about the move,” Bruno says, leading Susie to the office at the heart of the House. “He seemed very excited.”

“Move?” Susie asks. “What move?”

“A family came the first day Jean-Eric was here,” Bruno says. “It seems he’s in demand.”

“What family?” Susie says.

“Hang on a second, let me find out,” Bruno says, opening the office door. The office is a mess of paper which even Susie cringes at. How is anybody supposed to find anything in a place like this? Bruno goes immediately to one of the piles, flicking through the papers. “I really thought he would have told you about it. You seemed really close.”

“Maybe he wasn’t allowed to tell anybody else,” Susie says. She shakes her head. She shouldn’t think the worst. Jean-Eric is better off in a family than he is here and, if he’s happy wherever he is, she should be happy for him.

“He’s fine, you know,” Bruno says, able to tell Susie’s worried without even looking at her. “He still comes to our assessments. He seems really happy,”

“What’s the family called?” Susie asks, ignoring Bruno.

“Let me find out, Susie,” Bruno laughs, still flicking through the papers. “Umm… I think this is it. Here we are. Jean-Eric was adopted by… Oh, he was adopted by Ferrari.”

 

“So,” Felipe says, helping Adrian take his things up the stairs. “Your powers.”

“They’re not very good,” Adrian says, quietly. “They haven’t been since…”

He fell quiet, his eyes dropping to the floor. Felipe realised he probably shouldn’t have said that, but there was no taking anything back now. He dumped the box full of things onto his bed – or Adrian’s bed – and took hold of the new boy’s wrist.

“What are you doing?” Adrian asks

“Will help,” Felipe says, quietly. He glances up at Adrian’s face, smiling a little. Adrian just looks a little confused, but he doesn’t pull his wrist away. “Is that… is that better?”

“A little,” Adrian says, still more confused than happy. “How did you…?”

“Powers,” Felipe says, his smile growing even further. “Is not the most impressive thing in the world. Know this. But is useful in this family, it seems. You are ok?”

Adrian nods again and Felipe pulls his hand away. The German rubs his wrist nervously, looking down at it.

“So…” Felipe says, slowly, sitting down on Adrian’s bed. “Are going to tell me your powers? Would be helpful to know what they are so we can help you control them again.”

“You really think I am ever going to be able to control them again?” Adrian asks, nervously. He looks down at his own hands, knowing how much damage they’ve done to his real brothers. He doesn’t want that to happen here as well, or else Claire and Rob will send him away from here too.

“If you can get them back anywhere, it will be here,” Felipe promises. “So…”

“I only have non-phys,” Adrian says, quietly, sitting down on the bed with the box of things between himself and Felipe. “It’s umm… I don’t know what the technical name is for it in English. Um… is like… thought manipulation.”


	5. Family Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unusual Powers Cont.:  
> "As a tutor you are trained to deal with the strangest of powers, but you never expect to encounter them," Andrea says. "They are just case studies you read about and you are asked questions like what you would do in certain situations. I had come across only one other case of a power possessor with Fernando's power when he developed it. Normally you have at least a positive case study and a negative case study to prepare you for this kind of thing, but with Fernando... Apparently it was difficult to find a positive case study. So I knew what *not* to do, but not so much what a good thing to do was. We decided between us that it was not such a good idea for anybody to find out about his powers. And, because of that secret, we grew closer. Somehow, and I do not know how, his family at Ferrari found out. I did not know what the good thing to do was, but I knew for sure it was definitely not that."

Toto almost groans when he sees who’s phoning. He has about a million and one things to do today, and that doesn’t include the latest argument Lewis and Nico have gotten themselves into. He doesn’t even know what this one’s about yet, but there’s music blasting down from upstairs again and Nico has marched out of the house in a huff. Niki, again, is doing nothing to help and Toto feels like marching out of the house himself, if he thought anybody else would sort out this mess, but he knows they won’t.

And now this. Susie. It’s as if she can’t go two days without having a crisis of his own and Toto had known what he was signing up for when he agreed to be her best friend, but that was before his own family started to have problems.

“Hello?” Toto says, answering the phone.

“Toto,” Susie says. “I need help.”

“What has happened this time?” Toto asks. Lewis hasn’t long been back from dropping her off at the House. (Long enough to get into another argument, but not that long.)

“It’s Ferrari,” Susie says. She sounds like she’s crying.

“What do you mean?” Toto asks, confused. He knows the Williams family doesn’t exactly get on with the Ferrari family, for one reason or another but, as far as he’s aware, they’ve both agreed to leave one another alone. “Are going to need to talk to me if you want me to help you.”

“They have Jean-Eric,” Susie says, gulping back tears.

“What?”

“We left him at the House and then Ferrari came and they took him,” Susie says without taking a breath, trying to keep her tears under control.

“Ferrari have adopted Jean-Eric?” Toto asks. This is the last thing he needed right now.

“They have _taken_ him, Toto,” Susie snaps.

Toto mutters under his breath that Jean-Eric has probably been adopted, because that’s what the House is for, but he knows Susie won’t want to hear any of that. He sits down, knowing he’s going to need to calm Susie down before he starts to explain that everything’s actually going to be ok.

“I have to go and get him,” Susie says.

“Go and- Susie, if they have adopted him, there is nothing we can do,” Toto says. “They think there is a connection and maybe you do not like the family but that does not define Jean-Eric, does it? You can still be friends with him.”

“You don’t understand,” Susie snaps. “They’re going to hurt him.”

“Kimi and Sebastian are… Sebastian is… they are not going to hurt him, Susie,” Toto says, but he knows he isn’t be very reassuring at all. “Just calm down. Where are you now?”

“On the way to the bus stop,” Susie mutters, unimpressed. Toto is supposed to be supporting her, but he’s just treating her like an idiot.

“Ok,” Toto says. “Phone me when you get back into town, ok?”

“I need Lewis to take me to Italy again,” Susie says.

“I do not think that is a very good idea,” Toto says.

“I need to-.”

“Lewis is not in the best of moods right now, Susie,” Toto says, quietly. It isn’t exactly a lie. Sure, he (or Susie) would be able to convince Lewis to take Susie to wherever she needs to be, but he doesn’t need to tell Susie that. “I really do not think he should be using his powers when he is like this. Why don’t you go home, talk to Rob and Claire, and maybe you can go with Frank and see him?”

“You’re not going to let me use my powers?”

Toto spins around, surprised to find Lewis stood in the doorway. He hadn’t even noticed the music coming down from up the stairs switch off, but now it’s deadly silent.

“Susie, I have to phone you back,” Toto says.

“Don’t even bother,” Lewis says, storming out of the room.

Toto jumps up and rushes after him.

“Get off me, man,” Lewis snaps when Toto grabs his shoulder.

“Was not being serious,” Toto says. “Just needed to give Susie a reason why she could not go off and do something stupid.”

“So you’re lying to your girlfriend,” Lewis says. “Even better.”

“No, I just.”

“Don’t even bother,” Lewis says again, shrugging Toto away from him and heading out the front door. Toto just wants to scream at the door. And his phone. And at the old man sleeping in the corner. But he takes a deep breath, counts to ten, and lets it out. The Nico and Lewis problem can be put on hold for five minutes. Susie will phone him back when she was back in town. He needs to work on his maths homework now before anybody else tries to distract him.

 

Jenson’s out in the garden with Kevin. It’s a Saturday, and Saturdays mean treasure hunts. Or, they used to mean treasure hunts. Back when things were normal, Jenson had liked to play a game called “steal Fernando’s phone, get Kevin to hide it, and have Fernando try and find it”. The game is less amusing now, but Kevin had found it hilarious to have his brother crawling around the garden looking for the device, and Jenson has decided to continue the game, this time replacing the phone with chocolate.

Kevin’s stood by the door, trying to stop himself giggling as Jenson gets warmer to the hiding spot. Jenson can’t help but laugh at him. The kid’s pretty good at hiding things, but he doesn’t know Jenson peeks, and knows exactly where to find the chocolate.

Kevin cheers when he finally finds it, knowing he’s going to be allowed most of it, and they both head quickly back inside before it starts raining. Ron’s out – though Jenson isn’t entirely sure where he disappears off to on a Saturday afternoon – and Fernando’s upstairs, as usual, so Jenson and Kevin have the living room to themselves.

Saturdays have been panning out like this for a while now: the treasure hunt, coming back inside to watch repeats of cartoons Jenson finds more interesting than Kevin does, and then a trip to the park when Ron arrives back from wherever he’s disappeared off to, if it isn’t raining. Jenson doesn’t mind it. He likes the lazy days and Kevin seems to enjoy it too. Things were better when the treasure hunt was a wind up and watching TV meant arguing about what was on with Fernando, but that doesn’t happen anymore.

Kevin breaks the chocolate bar in half and hands the smaller half to Jenson. Then he snaps his own half in two again and jumps up again.

“Where are you going, hey?” Jenson asks.

“Want to see if Um-Nando wants some,” Kevin says, showing his eldest brother what he’s done with the chocolate.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, mate,” Jenson says. “Come here. I think Spongebob’s on in a minute.”

“Why not?” Kevin asks. He knows, if there’s anything that can get him out of his room, it’s chocolate.

“You know Fernando doesn’t like chocolate that much,” Jenson says. “I think he’s busy anyway. Why don’t you come and sit down, mate?”

“Saw him watching,” Kevin says, quietly, coming to sit back down beside Jenson. “When we were playing treasure hunt, he was watching. I think he wants to play with us again, Jenshon.”

“He was watching?” Jenson asks.

Kevin nods. “From the window. I saw him. Maybe Um-Nando thinks we don’t want to play with him anymore. That’s why he doesn’t want to play.”

“I don’t think that’s it, Kev,” Jenson says, putting an arm around his brother as the title sequence started on the TV.

“I think it is,” Kevin says, looking up at Jenson. “You know, in my reading book, Chip thought he was right, and Biff thought she was right. And she was right. I think I’m right.”

“Fernando just wants to be left on his own,” Jenson says. “It’s not very happy, I know, but one day he’ll be happy again and we can all play again, yeah.”

“Wish he was happy now,” Kevin says, quietly, turning back to the TV.

Fernando’s stood in the hallway with his back to the wall, listening in on the conversation. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down a little. It’s not Jenson’s fault. Fernando understands why he’s being like he is. Kevin’s his little brother too, and he’s been his brother for longer. Jenson’s just trying to protect him.

But he’s not going to _do_ anything to Kevin. Fernando knows he’s not going to do anything to either of them – to anybody. He never wants to use his power outside of tutoring ever again. He only needs the tutoring so that he doesn’t accidentally use it, and then he can pretend it doesn’t even exist. Lots of power possessors never get their physical power. He can pretend he’s one of them.

When he saw that Kevin had seen him in the garden, Fernando had smiled, hoped Kevin would be able to convince Jenson to come up and see him. Then he’d be able to explain that he wasn’t a monster and he wasn’t going to hurt them. Then Jenson would steal his phone and run off with it and send a dozen embarrassing messages to Mark and it would be ok. Fernando had never thought he would want that to happen ever, but here he is. But no, Jenson doesn’t want things to go that way. Fernando understands, of course. Maybe, when he explains to Jenson that he isn’t going to hurt anybody, things will change. But he can’t explain unless Jenson comes to him.

 

Pastor has been pretty good at keeping out of his little sister’s way since she arrived. He’s only seen her on a couple of occasions and, when Carmen had given him a little wave and tried to act ‘cute’, he had ignored her. But now Romain has disappeared to he doesn’t know where and Gerard has had to go out, so now he’s been left alone with Carmen.

She isn’t exactly _doing_ anything to annoy Pastor. His little sister is sat, cross legged, on the floor, with a box of beads in front of her, making some kind of charm bracelet. And Pastor is still ignoring her, reading his magazine and glancing down at her every once in a while to make sure she’s still doing what she’s supposed to be doing.

As long as she doesn’t speak before Gerard or Romain come back, they might both get out of this pain free.

“Pasty?” Carmen asks, looking up at him from the floor.

“Past- _or_ ,” Pastor says, rolling his eyes. Why do they always have to be little kids as well? Why is it never anybody his and Romain’s age? At least Romain is bearable. “What do you want?”

“Made you a bracelet,” Carmen says, offering her brother the little bracelet she had made.

“Guys don’t wear bracelets,” Pastor says, shaking his head. He doesn’t know why she can’t leave him alone but, apparently, that isn’t possible for the little brat.

“Do,” Carmen says, standing and placing the bracelet in Pastor’s hand. “Is a friendship bracelet, so you have to wear it.”

“Am not wearing it,” Pastor says. “Give it to Romain when he gets back.”

“Have already done one for Romain,” Carmen says, quietly. She knows her eldest brother doesn’t really like her. She’d just hoped this would make him like her a little more. It had worked with Romain. “And for Gerard. And I have one too.” She raises her hand to show off the hand made bracelet around her wrist. “So now we can all have one, and be a family.”

“Do not need bracelets to make us a family,” Pastor says. He doesn’t need any more of a reminder that he’s connected to a bunch of idiots.

“You are not very nice,” Carmen says.

“I know,” Pastor says, smirking at the way Carmen’s forehead folds when she’s angry.

“Am going to tell Gerard that you’re not being very nice,” Carmen says, stropping off across the room to sit with her beads again.

“Tell him, I do not care,” Pastor says. Maybe he’ll think twice about leaving the two of them home alone again if Carmen makes it clear she doesn’t want to be.

“And then you will get into big, big trouble,” Carmen warns.

“Am always in big, big trouble anyway,” Pastor says. “Get into trouble even when I am not doing anything. Might as well be happy when I am getting into trouble, no?”

“Just put on the bracelet,” Carmen shouts, pointing to the beads and string that are still in Pastor’s hand.

“Keep your stupid bracelet,” Pastor says, throwing the thing back over to her. Carmen catches it quickly, almost tripping over her box of beads to do so.

“I hate you,” Carmen snaps, racing out of the room and up the stairs.

Pastor just smirks and turns up the volume on the television. She’ll be less annoying upstairs in her room than down here with him, he’s sure.


	6. Not Quite A Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where there are unusual things, there are people trying to figure out how they work. And where there is anything, there is somebody trying to figure out how they can use the thing to make money. The Ferrari family has been in existence for almost as long as power possessors have been known about, initially for the purpose of figuring out why some children are given powers and some aren't. Experiments changed over the years as the understanding of power manipulation changed, until some bright spark realised he could make a nice profit by processing powers in some way. From that moment on, things at the Ferrari "family" became very focused...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added the suicidal thoughts tag and the domestic abuse tag. I'm not really sure how extreme the domestic abuse gets but I thought it important to put the warning in there, just in case it does get bad or people feel uncomfortable at even "mild" (I don't think that's the right word, but I can't think of another) forms.

“Valtteri?”

Valtteri looks up from the bed. Felipe’s stood in the door way, clearly scared about something.

“Is there a wasp again?” Valtteri asks. He doesn’t remember when _he_ became the designated wasp evictor.

“Is Adrian,” Felipe says quietly. He comes into the room, which is still in chaos itself with all Felipe’s things in there again, and shuts the door behind him. “Know what his non-phys is.”

Valtteri rolls his eyes. If Felipe is going to get with Adrian how Susie was with Jean-Eric, he doesn’t want any part in it. “What are they?”

“Has thought manipulation,” Felipe says. “Is the same as Kimi was and the same as Pastor was.”

“What?”

Valtteri’s sat up now, knowing why his brother’s so worried. Felipe nods, leaning against the door. He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t go to Rob and Claire, not after he’s told them that he’s ok with Adrian staying with them, and Valtteri and Susie are both ok with the German boy too. But, after everything Kimi has done to them, and everything Pastor has done to Valtteri… His brother still wakes up from nightmares about the flood, not as often as before but still too often for Felipe’s liking. He can’t let anything like that happen again.

“What do we do?” Valtteri asks.

“He cannot stay here,” Felipe says. “He is not even in control of his powers. Even if he is nice and would never try to do anything to hurt us, he might still do it by accident.”

Valtteri nods, knowing his brother is right. He’s all for helping a friend, but he needs to put himself first sometimes.

“So we tell Claire and Rob?” Valtteri says.

“You think that’s going to work?” Felipe ask. “Will only be ‘you said you are ok with this’. Do not think they will listen.”

“Have to do something,” Valtteri says. He doesn’t like the idea of scaring Adrian off like Susie would try if she knew. Actually… “Susie can’t find out,” he says.

“What?”

“He is already unstable, isn’t he?” Valtteri says. “Is already going through a lot. Do not want Susie tormenting him as well.”

“Guess you are right,” Felipe says. “Still do not know what we do though.”

“We have to tell Claire and Rob,” Valtteri says. “They are the only ones that can do anything.”

Felipe isn’t so sure, but he can’t come up with any other suggestions so it looks like they’re going to have to tell their parents.

 

“Sebastian, you are going to _have_ to stop bouncing,” Britta snaps, but it’s no use. The child is bouncing around on the sofa with his shirt off and Britta sighs, annoyed, Sebastian’s top in her hand. “I am going to count to three and if you are not getting your shirt on by the time I get there, you are going straight to your room.”

Sebastian just giggles, leaping from one sofa to the other. “Floor is lava, Britta! You’re on fire!”

“One.”

“Can’t catch me!”

“Two.”

“Aren’t going to catch me, Britta!” Sebastian sings.

“Three.”

Britta takes a step towards her youngest son, only for Sebastian to race out of the room faster than Britta can blink, leaving a breeze behind him. Britta sighs and falls back onto the sofa, even more annoyed than before. Maurizio smiles as he comes into the room and _of course he’s happy_ , Britta thinks. The Ferrari family looks stronger than ever with Sebastian’s powers improving the more time he spends with his brother. But Britta knows that’s all the other so-called parent cares about. The fact Sebastian’s a little terror and cockier than ever doesn’t really matter.

“Go and get him to come and put his top on, please,” Britta says, tired and worn out.

“He will be fine without his top on, Britta,” Maurizio says. “He’s happy, isn’t he?”

“And that’s all that matters?” Britta snaps. “He’s happy. It doesn’t matter if he gets a cold because he’s half naked. He’s happy.”

“Have you seen the weather, Britta?” Maurizio asks, laughing. “He is not getting a cold around here.”

“He is _my_ son and I want him to put his top on,” Britta snaps, only made angrier when Maurizio laughs at her.

“Britta?” Kimi asks, standing at the bottom of the stairs and peering in at the two adults. He knows Britta and Maurizio fight. They fight all the time, but Britta has been trying her best to hide it from both the boys and, as far as Kimi can tell, Sebastian doesn’t know about it yet.

Britta sighs and smiles a clearly fake smile.

“Yeah?”

“Do you want me to try, with Sebastian?” Kimi asks, holding out a hand for the top.

“Thank you, Kimi,” Britta says, handing the teenager the shirt. Kimi nods, his smile uneasy as he glances between Maurizio and Britta, before heading in the same direction as Sebastian.

Britta manages to hold her smile until Kimi is out of sight, then she turns and glares at Maurizio. “They are my children.”

“ _Our_ children,” Maurizio corrects her, but they both know there’s no connection. There’s no reason for Maurizio to be here at all and, if Britta had the money, her and they boys would have been as far away from the Ferrari “family” as possible. But she doesn’t and, whilst she has Maurizio’s promise that the scientists won’t do anything to her boys whilst they’re staying with him, she doesn’t have a choice to go somewhere else.

Maurizio’s lack of connection doesn’t seem to be hurting the boys’ powers, and Britta’s thankful for that. It’s easy enough to pretend they’re a family at the assessments when everything’s going right for them for the first time in ages. But when they’re at home…

“Why don’t you run back to your little experiments,” Britta hisses. “Leave the family to me whilst you get on with your real job.”

The smirk falls from Maurizio’s face instantly to be replaced with a deep set frown and a glare. Talking about the experiments where the boys might hear is forbidden. They’ve managed to work out that Sebastian has no memory of the few lab sessions he had been a part of. Kimi, neither of them are really sure about, but he hasn’t mentioned it at all since the day they’d found Sebastian, and Maurizio and Britta both hope he doesn’t think about it anymore.

“If you could actually handle your family, I would be able to leave it to you,” Maurizio spits.

“I am coping just fine,” Britta snaps, but they both know it’s a lie. Things were better when she and Sebastian were still with Christian. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but at least he wasn’t…

Britta shakes her head. She’s coping. She has to be.

Maurizio’s smirk returns and he nods, making Britta shiver. “Whatever you say,” he says as he stands, leaving the house.

 

Thankfully, Susie has the sense enough to wait for Toto at the bus stop like he asked her too. She’s not crying at the moment, but she definitely has been, and, when Toto wraps his arms around her to hug her, she just shakes her head.

“What’s happened?” he asks, gently. Whatever she’s got herself worked up about, he’s sure can be simply resolved.

“Ferrari have Jean-Eric,” Susie says, her breathing hitching again as she speaks. She’d thought she would be able to carry on without bursting into tears again, but apparently not. “They’re going to hurt him, Toto. I know they are.”

“Alright,” Toto says, leading Susie back to sit on the little bench. There’s no point trying to explain that Ferrari aren’t going to hurt him. Not yet anyway. She won’t listen to that. “Who has told you he has gone there, anyway?”

“Bruno,” Susie says, wiping her eyes again and leaning into Toto’s one armed hug. “He had the forms back at the House.”

She trusts Bruno. He was her brother for a while, after all, and it was through no fault of his own that he’d been sent to live at the house.

“Alright,” Toto says, knowing not to press that matter. “Do you know why Ferrari have adopted him?”

Susie bites her lip. Of course she knows. They’ve adopted him so they can conduct their sick experiments on him. But she can’t tell Toto that. He doesn’t know what happens in that family, and she’ll only get them all into trouble if she tells him.

“They’re going to hurt him,” she says, quietly.

“Right,” Toto says. “Susie, I know they upset Felipe when they said he does not belong there. And I know the misunderstanding with Valtteri happened, but sometimes mistakes with connections happen. And that does not mean they are going to happen again, does it?”

“You don’t understand,” Susie says, quietly. She hates lying to him. She hates that Toto thinks it’s all one big misunderstanding, that she had just been being a stupid little girl when they kidnapped Valtteri, but she doesn’t have a choice.

“Alright,” Toto says. It’s another issue that only makes Susie angry. “Why don’t you go and see Jean-Eric? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind seeing you, and you can see for yourself that he’s ok?”

“The Ferraris won’t let me anywhere near him,” Susie says, bitterly. They’ll probably have him locked up or something. Or he won’t even know what’s happening to him. He’ll think everything’s ok like Felipe did and they’ll be ruining his powers. “I can’t help him,” she says.

It’s _her_ fault he was at the House in the first place. If she hadn’t been such a brat when Jean-Eric first came to stay with her family, Claire and Rob wouldn’t have sent him to the house and Ferrari wouldn’t have been able to get to him. This was all her fault.

“You don’t know that,” Toto says, gently. “Do you want me to walk you home? Maybe Frank could take you some time?”

“I can’t go home,” Susie says. If she goes home she’s going to have to deal with Adrian and pretend to be all friendly and welcoming and she isn’t ready to deal with that right now. Claire and Rob won’t listen to anything she says whilst they had the new boy to deal with.

“Alright,” Toto says, standing and pulling Susie up with him. “But I cannot say that it is going to be much better at mine.”

“Nico still acting up?” Susie asks, tucking herself under Toto’s arm.

“Nico is still acting up. Lewis is still acting up,” Toto says, shaking his head. Other families seemed to get on so well with each other. Why is it so hard for his family to be the same?

“They’ll stop eventually,” Susie says, snuggling against Toto as they walk. “They just want to rebel and get a little attention.”

“Says my little rebel,” Toto says and the edges of Susie’s frown turn up a little.

“Yes,” she says. “That’s how I know. Do you want me to talk to Nico?”

“They’re out,” Toto says. “Or they were out when I left.”

He’s no idea where either of them have gone and Toto knows he should care but he just _doesn’t._ They’re out of his hair and, now that Susie seems to have calmed down a little, he can be a kid for a little while before they get back. They spend more time out of the house than in it these days and, if they weren’t trying to kill one another when they were in, he would have been upset about that, but Toto knows how much it helps for Susie to get away from her family every once in a while, so maybe it helps the boys too. Or that’s what he hopes.

“Hi Niki,” Susie says as she passes the old man to head into the kitchen.

“Helping yourself to food?” Niki asks, looking up over his paper to Toto.

“Making a brew,” Susie says. “Would you like one?”

“I am fine, thank you,” Niki says, folding his paper and putting it on the arm of the chair. Toto mentally groans. Now, _now_ , of all times, Niki is going to play his part of “parent”, keeping Toto and Susie from disappearing upstairs for fear they’ll do something stupid.

Toto falls back into his usual spot on the sofa, pretending to interest himself in finding something interesting on the television whilst he knows Niki’s watching him with a smirk on his face.

It takes Susie a couple of minutes to make herself a cup of tea, already knowing Toto won’t want one. Niki and Toto sit in an awkward silence the entire time until Susie returns, sitting beside Toto and smiling patently at Niki.

“Heard your parents are looking after Adrian Sutil,” Niki says.

“Hmmm,” Susie says. “You know mum. Can’t help but try to help people.”

Toto puts an arm around Susie and shoots Niki a look. He’s only just gotten Susie calm. He doesn’t need Niki getting her worked up about something _else._


	7. Connections and Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is possible to develop powers without being around people you have a connection with. A lot of power possessors get their non-phys before they even think about finding a family. And, sometimes, it's possible to gain control of your powers without being in the correct family, but it's more difficult, and a lot of children won't get any control without people they have a connection with. The connection is stabilizing. The power possessor's mind is... calmer isn't the exact right word, but it's the simplest to imagine. The power possessor's mind is calmer and it's easier for them to get some kind of control. It's one of the reason's the Ferrari family always strived to find tutors who might have a connection with the power possessor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter mentions Jules. Not anything that happened but I just thought I should mention it here for anybody.

“Rob?”

The boys tossed a coin to decide who would go down. Felipe lost.

“Yeah?”

Rob’s busy hovering and Felipe thinks he probably shouldn’t be bothering him and wait a while for Valtteri to get the courage to talk to their parents about Adrian. But he knows someone needs to do it and the longer they wait, the longer Adrian has to hurt them.

“Is about Adrian,” Felipe says, and Rob turns to hoover off.

“What about Adrian?” Rob asks. “Is he alright?”

“Yeah, I think he is settling in ok,” Felipe says, nervously. He’s got a feeling Rob will take Adrian’s side. Sure, Rob’s _his_ family, but Felipe knows he’ll pull the ‘do you know what it’s like to witness something like that’ card, and that’ll be that. “Is just… you know about his powers, yes?”

“They’re not as good as he wants them to be, I know,” Rob says.

“No, but you know what they are?” Felipe asks.

“No, Felipe, I haven’t really gotten around to that yet,” Rob says, nodding down to the hoover. “A little busy at the moment.”

“But is important,” Felipe says, quickly, jumping forward when Rob goes to turn the hoover on.

“You can ask him yourself if you want to,” Rob says, laughing.

“ _No_ ,” Felipe says. Why does Rob have to be so stupid sometimes? “Know what it is. Is why it is important.”

Rob sighs and sits down. He’s got a feeling this is going to take a while. Felipe nervously tugs at the bottom of his shirt, trying to find the right words, but his mind has suddenly gone blank.

“Felipe?” Rob prompts.

“Can manipulate thoughts,” Felipe spits out. “Like Kimi and like Pastor.”

“He… what?”

“Manipulates thoughts,” Felipe says again, in case Rob hadn’t heard him the first time. The Brit frowns and Felipe can’t tell what he’s thinking, but then the confused frown turns into a grin and he laughs.

“Why so worried?” he says, patting the seat beside him for Felipe to sit down.

“Why so- can _manipulate thoughts_ ,” Felipe cries, not moving from his spot by the door. “Can manipulate _our_ thoughts.”

Just like Kimi did. Maybe Rob has forgotten about that, but Felipe hasn’t and he knows Valtteri never will. The laughter falls from Rob’s face when he realises what’s going through Felipe’s mind and he sighs, patting the space on the sofa next to him again. This time, Felipe comes and sits down beside him.

“He isn’t going to do anything,” Rob says, gently, pulling Felipe into a hug like he used to when it was just them. “Adrian is a good kid, yeah? And he’s going through a tough time and that’s the only reason he’s here.”

“But what if he does it accidentally?” Felipe asks, quietly. “Is why he got sent away from the Saubers, isn’t it?”

Rob takes a deep breath in response. It’s true, he guesses, and Monisha’s actions make a little more sense to him now if this was the kind of thing they had been dealing with.

“Even if he does it accidentally, we’ll see,” Rob promises. “Claire and I both know what to look for. We’ll make sure nothing happens to any of you, alright?”

“He cannot stay here,” Felipe insists. “You find him somewhere else. Do not care _where_ , but somewhere.”

“Felipe,” Rob tries, but the Brazilian’s already stood again.

“No,” Felipe says. “Have already been through enough, haven’t we? Cannot just let him stay here. Is not fair on us.”

“He needs help, Felipe,” Rob says, sternly, and Felipe can guess almost word for word what’s going to come out of his mouth next. “You don’t know what it is like to have seen something like that.”

“And you do not know what it is like to be made to feel like you are not part of your own family,” Felipe snaps back. “You do not know what it is like to have no control over your own mind.”

“He is not part of Ferrari,” Rob says, standing too now. “Felipe, you need to calm down. Not everybody is like the Ferrari family. Most people aren’t like the Ferrari family and Adrian is not going to hurt you.”

“You are willing to risk this?” Felipe asks. “Even after what has happened last time and what happened with Valtteri and Pastor? You know he could have permanently hurt Valtteri, don’t you? Could have stopped him ever getting his powers.”

Rob sighs and runs a hand through his hair, as if he’s really thinking about it, but Felipe knows better. He won’t listen to them and Felipe thinks this is rather stupid, considering how much they’ve been right so far, but it’s no use.

“Felipe.”

“Do not even bother,” Felipe snaps, turning on his heel to head out of the room, only to stop dead when he saw who was sitting on the stair case. Rob goes to pull Felipe back into the conversation when he spots who Felipe has spotted.

“Adrian,” he says quietly.

The German looks up at them, tears beginning to well in his eyes, before standing and running up the stairs. Rob follows him, taking the stairs two at a time but still not managing to get to the German before his bedroom door slams short.

 

How could he have been so stupid? How could he ever have thought something like this was going to work? Adrian knew how families worked, and how they relate to powers. His powers are never going to get better whilst he’s away from his family and Monisha and the others _have_ to know that. He shouldn’t be here. All he’s doing here is disrupting another family and it’s not fair on them or on him or anybody.

“Adrian? Let me in.”

He doesn’t reply. He’s sat on a bed that isn’t his with his knees tucked up to his chin, peering out the window into the garden below. He shouldn’t be here. He doesn’t belong here.

Adrian doesn’t know how long it takes for Rob to leave him alone. He just knows Rob goes quiet after a while and Adrian can hear the Brit talking to someone on the landing. Probably Felipe, or Valtteri. Neither of them want him here and he doesn’t blame them. He doesn’t know what things Felipe was talking to Rob about – he’s never made somebody lose control of their own minds before – but if that’s happened to them then he can see why they wouldn’t want him around. Especially with his powers like they are.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

Adrian bounces off of the bed and almost out of the window, surprised to see an elderly man sitting right beside the space he has just vacated. The old man smiles and offers Adrian a hand to shake.

“Frank,” he says. “I guess you’re Adrian.”

“Yeah,” Adrian says, nervously taking the hand and giving it a little shake. Frank grins and pats the space beside him, but Adrian doesn’t sit down.

“It must be weird being here,” Frank says. “You’re allowed to find it weird, you know. You’re not pretending you’re supposed to be here.”

“I feel like it,” Adrian says. He feels like he’s just been dumped on the Williams family’s nice clean sheet and everyone’s supposed to pretend there’s nothing wrong.

“Well don’t,” Frank laughs. “We all know what’s going on here, don’t worry. You’re not tricking anybody.”

Adrian leans back against the window sill behind him, picking at the paint at the bottom of the sill and looking down at his shoes whilst Frank watches him.

“Think of yourself as a guest,” Frank says. “You’re not part of the family, no, but we still want you to be happy.”

“I should be with my family,” Adrian says, quietly. If he could just control his powers, he would still be there. If he hadn’t screwed up Marcus’ tutoring or made Felipe cry, he wouldn’t have been sent away.

“You’ll be back there soon,” Frank promises. “I think everybody just needed a little time after Jules.”

“This isn’t about Jules,” Adrian snaps, and he would march away then and there if there was anywhere to go. He groans loudly and screws his eyes shut. “Not everything is about Jules, you know. Yeah, that was shit and I hate it and I wish I’d never seen it. But not every problem I have can be linked back to that. I am not just the person who saw Jules… who saw what happened to Jules, ok?”

Adrian falls silent and opens his eyes again, half expecting Frank to have disappeared. But the elderly man is still sat there, nodding patiently as if Adrian’s outburst was expected. Adrian doesn’t know what to make of him and watches him suspiciously.

“Do you want to tell me what else there is then?” Frank asks. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I understand.”

“I don’t know,” Adrian says. “If I knew, I would have already sorted it out, wouldn’t I?”

Frank nods. “I guess that makes sense.”

Adrian shakes his head. He doesn’t know what Frank’s trying to accomplish here but it isn’t working.

“I’ve had counselling, you know,” Adrian says. “But it didn’t work. I’m still the same mess. And you can blame it on what you want, but it isn’t going to get fixed.”

“You had counselling?” Frank asks. He didn’t know that and makes a mental note to bring it up with Claire later. Maybe it’ll help. Maybe it won’t, but it’s definitely worth being aware of.

Adrian nods. “But it didn’t work, so you can’t just try that.”

“We won’t,” Frank says. “Not if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t,” Adrian says, firmly.

“Right,” Frank says. “Now, do you want to talk about what you heard Felipe saying?”

“No,” Adrian says. “If I wanted to talk, I wouldn’t be in here, would I? I just want to be left alone.”

“Right,” Frank says, and Adrian’s pretty sure he’s going to get the lecture about having somebody to talk to, so he just closes his eyes. When he opens them again, Frank is gone.

 

Susie gets back just as Felipe and Valtteri are about to head to the chip shop. Neither of them have spoken much about what they need to happen with Adrian. They need to take a new approach, because they’re not going to get listened to this way, and a lot of plotting is planned for the visit to the take out.

“Look who’s back,” Claire says, the smile on her face false.

Susie rolls her eyes, tempted to march up the stairs to her room but she knows she’s going to have to deal with her family if she wants to help Jean-Eric.

“Can we talk?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Rob says. “What do you want to eat though?”

“Valtteri knows what I like,” Susie says, shooting the boys a look. They both nod and hurry out the door. At least they’re not going to be blamed for Susie’s mood as well. “Where’s Adrian?”

“He’s in his room,” Claire says. “We can go and get him, if you like?”

“No, it’s ok,” Susie says, a little nervous. She doesn’t _do_ opening up to her mother and Rob, because they always seem to take things the wrong way, but she’s been going through how she’s going to explain things with Toto. He didn’t think it’s as important as Susie knows it is, but that isn’t his fault, and he helped anyway. “I need to talk to you.”

“Go on,” Claire says.

“I went to see Jean-Eric,” Susie says.

“Yes, the boys said,” Clare says. “And that couldn’t have waited until after we got back with Adrian?”

“Can you just let me finish,” Susie snaps. And they wonder why she never speaks to them when all they do is cut her off and ignore what she says. “I went to see Jean-Eric, but he isn’t at the house anymore. Bruno says he’s been adopted by the Ferrari family.”

She doesn’t know what she expects her mother and Rob to do about it, but it isn’t for them to just sit there, staring at her, like they’re doing now. She gives it a couple of seconds, waiting for them to dismiss everything she’s said and tell her she’s nothing to worry about, but there’s nothing.

“I just thought you should know,” Susie says with a small shrug. She turns to go upstairs, her plan going out the window now that Claire and Rob are acting so strangely.

“No, Susie, wait,” Claire says, quickly. “How long has he been there?”

“You want to help him?” Susie asks.

“Of course we want to help him,” Rob says, gently. “I don’t know how we’re going to be able to do that, but we’ll think of something.”

It’s probably their fault Ferrari even want him. If they hadn’t taken him in before, Ferrari probably wouldn’t have looked twice at him.

Susie smiles, weakly, not sure if she believes these two are her real parents or if they’ve been kidnapped by aliens or something, but she’ll go with it.

“Bruno said they came the first day he was there,” she says.

“That’s… months,” Claire says. “He hasn’t been at any of the assessments with them, has he?”

“Bruno said he still goes to _their_ assessments,” Susie says. “Why would he be going to their assessments and not ours?”

“I’ve no idea,” Rob says. “But we’ll find out, yeah. We’ll go there and ask to see him. We’ll make sure he’s ok, don’t worry.”

“To the assessments?” Susie asks.

“No,” Rob says. “We’ll go to see Ferrari.”


	8. Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fact that parents are called "parents" can be a little misleading. Originally, older power possessors who had had powers for longer were there to guide younger power possessors they had a connection with. Things started to change when older power possessors started using their Physical powers in jobs, and it was left to those who could not develop physical powers, but instead developed control of their non-phys powers immediately, to play the role of teaching and guiding. Eventually, things changed so that a power possessor with immediate control of their non-phys powers (who found themselves with those they have a connection with) was known to be a "parent" before they even developed the experience and knowledge necessary for the role.

Everything just feels like it’s falling apart. Britta knows she was stupid. She was stupid to agree to Maurizio’s plan and she was stupid to let Sebastian come here in the first place, put she doesn’t have any choice in the matter anymore. Things are the way they are and she can’t change them. Not at the moment, anyway.

Sebastian comes down the stairs beaming as his tutor leaves and Britta knows she has to put on a smile for him. She doesn’t know how convincing it is, but Sebastian doesn’t seem to notice. At some point, Kimi has managed to get him to put on his top and she’s grateful for that.

“I did good in tutoring,” Sebastian says, proudly, beaming up at his mother.

“Well done,” Britta says, ruffling Sebastian’s hair as she passes him to go into the kitchen.

Sebastian’s smile falls a little as he fellows her into the other room. “So… can I have ice cream now?”

“No you can’t have ice cream,” Britta laughs, getting things out of the fridge to prepare dinner.

“But I did good in tutoring,” Sebastian says, climbing onto the stool and sitting down on the kitchen side.

“I know you did good,” Britta says. “But that doesn’t mean you get ice cream. Maybe after dinner.”

“Maurizio lets me have ice cream,” Sebastian says, pouting.

“Well, it unfortunate for you that I am not Maurizio, then, isn’t it?” Britta says, the smile still in place. Of course Maurizio lets him have ice cream. Because Maurizio lets him do anything, and Britta is sure he’s just doing things to spite her now. They agreed she would look after the family and, to him, that seems to mean he gets to do everything he can to prove she can’t do it.

“You’re no fun,” Sebastian says.

“Nope, none at all,” Britta says, picking Sebastian up from the counter and placing him on the stool so she could start cooking.

“I’m going to find Kimi,” Sebastian says, hoping off of the stool and heading back up the stairs. Britta leaves him to it. At least Kimi is helping her. She shouldn’t _have_ to rely on the teenager to help her, but she isn’t fighting Maurizio on her own, and it’s a little comfort.

Britta has everything on the stove cooking when there’s a knock at the door. She waits a few seconds, half expecting someone to come down the stairs and answer it, but no. She’s going to have to do that as well.

“Yes, I’m coming!” she calls as whoever’s at the door knocks again. She opens the door, expecting one of Maurizio’s “friends” or, possibly, one of the tutors having forgotten something. What she _isn’t_ expecting is an angry teenage girl and her parents. Britta blinks, stupidly, at the three members of the Williams family, confused for a moment before she regains her composure. “Can I help you?” she asks, trying to remain as blank faced as possible.

“Where is he?” Susie demands before either of her parents can stop her.

“I’m sorry?” Britta says, clearly confused.

“Where is he?” Susie says again. “I know you have him. Bruno told me.”

“We’re looking for Jean-Eric,” Rob explains, Claire biting the inside of her own cheek to stop herself from snapping just as badly as Susie. “Susie wanted to visit him.”

“Jean-Eric?” Britta says, slowly, still a little confused. Things don’t make sense for a couple of moments, before she remembers going to the House to speak to the French boy.

Before she can reply, there’s the sound of someone thundering down the stairs and, suddenly, Maurizio’s at Britta’s side. He’s smiling that smug smile, Britta’s notices, and she has to do her best to pretend she isn’t as sickened by it as Claire and Rob appear to be. They need to show a united front, or that’s what Maurizio says. It will benefit them all.

“Jean-Eric is not here,” Maurizio says, sliding a hand past Britta so he’s leaning against the door frame, keeping the Williams family from coming in and shutting Britta out of the conversation. Britta takes the opportunity to sneak away. This isn’t her family. It’s nothing to do with her.

“Bruno _told_ us you adopted him, so don’t lie,” Susie snaps.

“We were under that impression, yes,” Rob says. He doesn’t quite believe he’s somehow managed to become the one to be civil talking to a member of the Ferrari “family” but he doesn’t really trust Claire at the moment.

“We did,” Maurizio says, his voice so sickeningly calm it almost makes Rob cringe. “But then we figured out we are not a good fit. He does not have a connection with us.”

“Everyone here knows you don’t care about that,” Rob says. There’s no venom in his voice, he was just stating a fact.

“It is true,” Maurizio says. “Things have changed since you left, Rob. We are a family here now and we are trying to see if Sebastian and Kimi have another brother out there. We thought Jean-Eric might be, but it turns out he isn’t.”

“So where is he now?” Susie demands, glaring up at him. “If you’ve hurt my friend.”

“Not at all,” Maurizio laughs. “We didn’t want to send him back to that House. We didn’t want him to feel like he had been _abandoned_ again. Britta has a friend looking after him whilst we search to see if he has a real family somewhere.”

“Where?” Susie asks, snatching the word from Rob’s mouth.

Maurizio laughs. “You know what, I am not sure I remember. But you are welcome to go to one of his assessments to say hello to him. I think he has one this weekend, if you are really concerned.”

Susie bites her tongue, not sure how to answer. She doesn’t want to give them until the weekend to sort something out with Jean-Eric because she _knows_ he’s here. Maurizio wouldn’t have that smug smile on his face if he wasn’t here. But, at the same time, she doesn’t want to annoy them. She’s pretty sure her parents will just leave things like this and she doesn’t want to get Jean-Eric into any more trouble than he’s already in.

Rob waits a few moments to see if Susie will say anything before continuing.

“Where are the assessments held?”

 

Britta’s sat out of sight at the top of the stairs, listening to Maurizio and reminding herself again and again this is what’s best for her family. This has to happen. She doesn’t like it, but it has nothing to do with her. She shouldn’t be sitting here listening to Maurizio tell Rob how to get to the assessments. She shouldn’t be torturing herself like this, but she can’t move from where she’s sat now.

“Britta?”

Britta looks up to find Kimi standing outside his bedroom. She quickly stands, wiping her eyes and trying to hide her tears. She knows it doesn’t work with Kimi. She knows he has an idea what’s going on. But she’s supposed to be protecting and comforting him, not the other way around.

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” Kimi asks.

“Everything’s fine,” Britta insists, smiling, but her hands are shaking and she can tell he doesn’t believe her. He just waits in silence for her to carry on, but she won’t give in. This isn’t his problem to sort out.

“Is it Sebastian?” Kimi asks. “Because I have tried to tell him to not be an annoying little shit but I do not think he knows how.”

Britta laughs and shakes her head, glad to see the small smile on her eldest son’s face. “It’s not Sebastian.”

Kimi nods. He knows what the real problem is and, hearing Maurizio’s voice floating up the stairs, his thoughts are confirmed. He knows what Ferrari’s about. Britta’s not sure if he’s forgotten all the details like Sebastian seems to, but he still knows what had happened before. He still knows that, even if he has a connection with Britta and Sebastian, there’s nothing with Maurizio, and the Italian only means trouble.

“I could take Sebastian out for you, if you like?” Kimi says, trying to keep his little brother out of his mother’s way for a little while.

“I’m making dinner,” Britta says, even though she isn’t. She’s stood at the top of the stairs waiting for the people who hate her to leave. “Maybe after, yeah?”

“Who is he talking to?” Kimi asks, nodding down the stairs.

“The Williams lot,” Britta says quietly.

Kimi huffs. Now he understands why Britta’s up here.

“They are just a bunch of hypocrites, Britta,” he tells her, gently. “They have made as many mistakes as you. Do not let them tell you otherwise.”

“Thank you,” Britta says. She knows he only means well, but he doesn’t know what she’s done, letting Maurizio and his “scientists” get away with everything they’ve done so far.

“Sebastian and I are watching Cars,” Kimi says, nodding back to his room. “Do you want to join us?”

Britta shook her head. “I should get back to dinner, but thank you.”

 

Dinner is quiet now. Dinner’s almost always quiet now. Sometimes Maurizio doesn’t eat with them, choosing instead to go and work on things Britta would rather not know about. Then dinner times can be fun. Sebastian will start a food fight and blame it on his older brother and Kimi will tell jokes Sebastian doesn’t really understand but has the seven year old giggling like a mad man at the look on Britta’s face anyway.

Dinners with Maurizio are quiet though. Maurizio sits opposite Britta with that smile on his face that even Sebastian knows not to trust.

“You’re getting better at cooking,” he says, as if it’s a compliment.

“Thank you,” Britta says, not even looking at him. Why he insists on being here, she doesn’t know. All of them know he’s no more part of this family than the spider plants in the bathroom.

“I did really good in tutoring,” Sebastian says, proudly, hoping to make both his parents smile.

“Well,” Maurizio corrects him.

“Huh?”

“You did really _well_ in tutoring,” Maurizio explains.

Kimi rolls his eyes and loudly drops his knife and fork onto the plate, making Britta cringe.

“Bet you will do brilliantly in the next assessment,” he says, laughing at the way Sebastian’s face brightens again in an instant.

“Do you think so?”

“Yep,” Kimi says. “If you keep doing good in tutoring.”

Maurizio is glaring at him and Kimi knows it, but he doesn’t care.

“And you have to do good in tutoring to,” Sebastian says. “Because then we can both be the best in the entire assessment. That’ll show them.”

“Well,” Maurizio corrects him again.

“Show who, sweetie?” Britta asks.

“Them,” Sebastian says, waving his hands about at thin air. “Have heard them. The monsters that are not monsters. They said we are not a family but if we are not a family then my powers wouldn’t be good, would they?”

The monsters that aren’t monsters confuse him a little. Before, when they were just monsters, they scared him, but at least Sebastian knew what they were before. Now he has no idea. They’re people, he thinks, but only he can see them, so they’re no normal people. And he doesn’t know if they’re on his side or not. He remembers realising they’re not monsters, but he’s not entirely sure _why_ they’re not monsters…

“Ah,” Maurizio says, as if that’s an explanation. Imaginary friends.

Britta doesn’t let go so easily, making a mental note to ask Sebastian again as soon as Maurizio is gone.


	9. Hope for Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tutors, tutoring sessions, and assessments are only a relatively new addition to the Power Possessing world. When some bright spark figured the best way to encourage children to gain control of their powers was through a competition (or a series of competitions) there came the need for specialists to come and "train" young power possessors. Tutors, often "parent" power possessors with no known family, are trained from a young age to teach children how to understand their powers and how to gain and keep control of them, as well as basic non-power-related subjects. Often, tutors work best with children they have known for a long time, and so many tutor/power possessor combinations will last through many family changes. Other families will try to find new tutors when a power possessor joins the family, wanting the child to start fresh...

“Have told you Fernando, this cannot happen,” Andrea says, softly, wiping the child’s hair out of his face. Fernando just crosses his arms, glaring at the wall opposite him with tear filled eyes, as if he’s trying to burn a hole in it with his mind.

They’ve stopped tutoring again. Andrea knows it’s useless now. There’s no way he can get Fernando to focus on his powers and there’s nothing else he can do to make his non-phys any better. Sometimes the only thing he can do is be there.

“Why not?” Fernando says.

“This is not how things work,” Andrea says, softly, watching Fernando bite back tears. He sighs. He wishes it would work. Anything to make the teenager feel better would be a good thing, But he knows it won’t work, and going along with Fernando’s plan will only make things worse for the teenager.

“Might work,” Fernando mumbles. “You do not know it will not work.”

“I do.”

“Works for Felipe and Rob,” Fernando points out and, honestly, Andrea’s surprised it’s taken Fernando this long to bring that up.

“We are not Felipe and Rob,” the Italian says. “And we are not family. I am sorry, Fernando, but it just isn’t true. Ron and Jenson and Kevin are your family.”

“Does not feel like it,” Fernando mumbles. “They hate me. You are the only one who does not hate me, Andrea. Please do not leave me alone with them.”

“Nobody hates you Fernando,” Andrea tries, but he knows it’s not going to work. It hasn’t worked any of the other times he’s told the teenager and it probably won’t work the next fifty times, either.

“Do,” Fernando says. “For what I did to Jenson.”

“What you did to Jenson was not your fault.”

“But I still did it,” Fernando cries, pulling away from Andrea when the tutor tries to take hold of his wrist. He doesn’t want any of the comforting thoughts rubbish. He wants Andrea to understand. “I still did it and I could have hurt Jenson permanently, couldn’t I?”

He could still picture it all as clear as the day it happened. He doesn’t think he’s ever been as scared as then, not able to control himself, not able to move, trapped in a body that was not his whilst they made him hurt his brother. Every night he dreams of it, makes it worse and worse. What if they haven’t really let him go? What if he will be forced to do what they want any day now, go into Jenson’s or Kevin’s bedrooms whilst they’re sleeping and hurt them? There’s nothing he can do or say to stop it.

“You would not,” Andrea says. “Maybe there is a way to stop them being able to do it again.”

“Huh?”

“Maybe you can stop them taking over your body,” Andrea says. “I do not know, but I will look into it for you. We will work on that.”

Fernando stares at him, not sure what to say next. He doesn’t notice Andrea take hold of his wrist.

“You think there is a chance?” he asks.

“I think there is a possibility,” Andrea says. “I will have to look for you. But it is something to be hopeful for, isn’t it?”

Andrea’s been worried about Fernando for a while. Whilst he doesn’t have complete control of his powers, Fernando’s mind occasionally slips in Andrea’s and he knows how down the teenager is. There has to be something there to be hopeful for.

Fernando smiles and nods. If there’s anything that can make sure Ferrari can’t make him do anything again, Andrea will find it.

 

Jenson smiles weakly at Ron as he follows his tutor down the stairs. He knows Tom will tell Ron how badly the tutoring sessions have been getting, it’s his job, but he’s just going to pretend that everything’s fine. Ron seems to be over reacting about a lot of things at the moment, or reacting in the wrong way, and Jenson doesn’t want to give him another thing to worry about.

“We’re having a family dinner,” Ron announces as Jenson closes the door after Tom.

Jenson sighs. It’s as if Ron knows what the exact wrong thing to do is sometimes.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jenson says.

“Jenson, I have had a lot of children in my care,” Ron says, placing a hand on his eldest son’s shoulder. “And I’ve dealt with a lot of problems. Trust me. A family dinner is just what this family needs.”

“Because that worked so well the last time there was a problem,” Jenson mumbles. It’s no use. Ron isn’t going to change his mind, but he’s the one who’s going to have to try and convince Fernando to come out with them, and Jenson doesn’t see that happening any time soon.

“Go and fetch your brother then,” Ron says.

“KEVIN!” Jenson yells. He’s not going back up the stairs after he’s just come down.

There’s the sound of scrambling above them as Kevin rushes to hurry down the stairs and see what they want.

“I could have done that,” Ron says, fighting back a smile as he watches Kevin hurry down the stairs, holding onto the banister tightly. “And your other brother.”

“Fernando won’t want to come,” Jenson says.

“I know,” Ron says. “But this is going to do him good and everyone else. Go and speak to him.”

Jenson groans like a child but does as he’s told anyway. Arguing with Ron only gets him nowhere anyway. He ruffles Kevin’s hair as he passes and heads up the stairs, knowing he’s only going to come down alone.

Fernando’s bedroom door is closed. He came down as Andrea was leaving but then disappeared almost immediately. Jenson doesn’t even bother trying to see if it’s locked, knocking gently on the door. He gets no answer.

Sometimes things are better left alone. Jenson’s sure this is one of those times. He might not have all Ron’s ‘experience’ or whatever it is the parent claims to have, but he knows Fernando. It was him Fernando came and spoke to when he was worried about coming back to the family he’d left years ago. It was him Fernando came to when he had been worried about his friends. It was _him_ Fernando came to and, if he isn’t coming to Jenson now, he doesn’t want to talk.

“Fernando?” Jenson calls softly, so he can at least say he tried.

There’s nothing from the other side of the door.

“Fernando, Ron wants us to go on a family dinner,” Jenson says. “Do you want me to tell him you don’t want to come?”

Jenson holds his breath, waiting for some kind of reaction from his brother, but there’s nothing. He can’t say he expected anything else, but some kind of reaction would have been nice.

“I’ll tell him you don’t want to come,” Jenson says after standing in silence for a couple of minutes. “But he’ll probably come up and ask you himself. You know him.”

Jenson steps away from the door and has already crossed the landing to head back down the stairs when he hears the click of a lock and then Fernando’s bedroom door opens.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Jenson says, watching Fernando peak out from the crack in the door. “It’s up to you.”

“Want me to?” Fernando asks, quietly.

“It’s not up to me,” Jenson says, not really understanding the question.

The half smile on Fernando’s face falls and he shuffles back into his room. Jenson doesn’t really want him there. If it were down to Jenson, he wouldn’t be there. Fernando’s pretty sure Jenson would rather he wasn’t even in the house.

“Sorry,” Fernando mumbles before shutting the bedroom door again.

 

“Why isn’t it hot?” Kevin asks, picking up the little cube of sushi.

“Because it’s not cooked,” Ron says. He doesn’t know why he thought this place would be a good place to take the boys, but the sushi place was new and he was sick of chips and burgers whenever they went out.

“Ew,” Kevin says, putting down the cube again. “Don’t like it.”

“You haven’t even tried it, mate,” Jenson laughs, picking up the cube Kevin has just put down and offering it back to his little brother. Kevin pulls a disgusted face and leans away from it. “Give it a go, you might like it.”

“I want chips,” Kevin moans.

Jenson laughs and eats the sushi he’s taken from Kevin’s plate. His eyes flick up to Ron, who’s obviously waiting for him to say something first, but Jenson has no idea what.

“What are we going to do with you, hey?” Ron says.

“I reckon we should sell him to the circus,” Jenson says, mock seriousness a little too serious for his youngest brother, who looked back at him with wide eyes. “They could dress you up as a monkey and you can do tricks.”

“But I can’t do any tricks,” Kevin says, quietly, not sure if Jenson is teasing him or not.

“Ah, we won’t get that much money then, will we Ron?” Jenson says. “You’ll have to stay here with us.”

Kevin beams, happy he hasn’t been abandoned by his family just yet. He turns to Ron, looking for the parent’s reaction, but Ron doesn’t seem to be paying any attention anymore.

“What’s wrong?” Kevin asks. “Is it because Um-Nando isn’t here?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Kev,” Jenson says, ruffling his brother’s hair, when Ron doesn’t answer.

“Then why isn’t Um-Nando here?” Kevin asks. “He wanted to play with us the other day,” he tells Ron. “He was watching through the window when we were playing in the garden. He smiled and everything. I think he wants us all to be friends again.”

Jenson mentally groans at the grin on Ron’s face.

“Did he now?”

“I really think it’s best we leave Fernando alone,” Jenson says. He’s going to have to fight his brother’s corner if Fernando isn’t here to defend what he wants himself. “If he wanted to come and interact with us, he would. You know he’s having a tough time at the moment. What with what happened, and then Jules and everything.”

Jenson knows he shouldn’t use Jules like this, some kind of threat or warning, but if it keeps Ron from hindering Fernando’s recovery, he’ll do it.

“Jules?” Ron says.

Jenson nods, then he realises the parent might not have noticed how the accident effected Fernando, and he’s got a feeling he might have just made things ten times worse for his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next McLaren chapter is happy. I promise.


	10. Getting Along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it takes a while until you find someone you truly have a connection with. Sometimes you never find them. But, when you do, then there's no stopping it. There's no pretending it doesn't exist. It's an unconditional bond.

There’s giggling coming out from the garden and all it makes Pastor want to do is ram his head under his pillow. It’s too early for this. He’s not entirely sure what the time is, but he knows it feels like he can’t even open his eye lids right now, so it is definitely too early for that screech like giggle to be driving a hole into his skull.

“Again! Again!”

Doesn’t she understand that some people actually need to sleep? Doesn’t she understand that, just because she’s awake, doesn’t mean everyone would like to hear her screeching at the top of her lungs?

Another fit of giggles comes from the garden and Pastor groans loudly, sitting up. There’s no way he’s going to be able to go back to sleep now, no matter how tired he is. He glares at the window, even though he can’t see the garden from where he’s sat on the bed, and little specks of rain splatter against the glass.

 _Good_ , he thinks, waiting for the giggling to stop.

The rain gets gradually heavier until there’s more excited screeching and the sound of the door slamming shut down stairs.

“It’s raining Romain,” Pastor hears Carmen say. It sounds like she’s making her way up the stairs now and Pastor preys she’s going into her own room and not trying to come and pester him.

“Is it?” Romain says, humouring the girl. “That’s a shame.”

“I’m not allowed to do bubbles in the house,” Carmen says, sadly, and it sounds like they’re right outside Pastor’s door now.

The teenager groans again and falls back into his bed, screwing his eyes shut and hoping that will be enough to let him get back to sleep.

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Romain agrees.

“Will you play with me?” Carmen asks.

“I am a little busy at the moment,” Romain says and Pastor knows without even having to see him that that’s a lie. “Maybe you should ask Pastor.”

_And maybe she should piss off._

“Pastor doesn’t like me,” Carmen says quietly and Pastor smirks at that. The girl learns quickly, he’ll give her that much.

“Yeah,” Romain says. “Pastor does not really like any of us. Maybe you can show him your power. I’m sure he will like it.”

No, Romain’s sure it’ll annoy Pastor. His bedroom door is locked, of course, but Romain will probably see fit to change that without Pastor’s permission, so the Venezuelan gets out of his bed and sits with his back to the door so nobody can get in.

“He won’t,” Carmen says, sadly. “I made him a friendship bracelet before and he wouldn’t wear it.”

“Oh, he is a butt head, isn’t he?” Romain says, making Carmen burst into giggles again. “Maybe you should give me the bracelet and I will try to make him wear it.”

Pastor mentally groans, having to keep himself quiet now he doesn’t have a pillow or anything to muffle his sounds of annoyance. Romain won’t leave him alone until he’s wearing the stupid bracelet, his powers unable to effect his brother.

“Do you think you will be able to?” Carmen asks.

“Sure,” Romain says and Pastor can picture the smug grin on his face now. It is going to be a long day.

 

The boys are getting along and Toto isn’t sure if this is a good thing or not. Lewis and Nico have been together in the Brit’s bedroom for well over a couple of hours and, even though music has been blasting from the room so loudly Toto can’t even hear himself think, he hasn’t heard any shouting or arguing at all. He doesn’t know whether to trust it or not.

“Are you sure they have not killed one another,” Niki jokes as Toto comes down the stairs, school work done for once in his life.

Toto freezes. The thought hadn’t occurred to him before but, now that Niki’s mentioned it, it seems much more believable than the pair getting along.

Niki just laughs. “It is a joke. I’m sure they have not hurt one another.”

Toto decides it isn’t really worth the risk and rushes back up the stairs to make sure no murdering has taken place. The door is closed and Toto figures anybody alive won’t even be able to hear him knocking over the music, so he goes straight for the handle. It’ll annoy them, he’s sure, but right now he only cares about making sure they’re ok.

Surprisingly, the door opens, and Toto stumbles into the room. Both boys are sat on the floor, a laptop open in front of them, only for Lewis to slam it shut when Toto comes in. They both look up at him like rabbits caught in the headlights and Toto decides this definitely isn’t a good thing.

“Can we help you?” Nico asks, after a couple of moments of stunned silence.

“Are you… alright?” Toto asks, uncertainly, a little surprised to find no dead bodies in the room.

Both boys nod.

“What are you doing?” Toto asks. There’s no way he’s going to believe they’re both just getting on with one another without them both having some ulterior motive.

Lewis and Nico look between one another, trying to decide whether they should tell Toto. Toto just waits in the doorway. Whatever it is they’re doing, it can’t be any good.

“Nothing,” Nico says.

“Online game,” Lewis says. “You’re ruining it.”

“Right,” Toto says, but he doesn’t believe it for a second. He’s not entirely sure when the boys started lying to him, but it was probably around the same time that they started arguing with each other all the time. “Could you turn the music down a little? I cannot even hear myself think.”

“No,” Lewis says, simply, opening the laptop again, making sure Toto couldn’t see the screen.

“Really?”

“Leave us alone, man,” Lewis says. “Go and lie to your girlfriend or something.”

Toto tuts but leaves anyway, closing the door behind him. Neither of them are dead, or currently killing each other, so there can’t be anything that bad going on.

Niki smirks at him when he comes down the stairs.

“I take it they are not dead,” he says.

“And what would you say if they were?” Toto asks,

“But they are not,” Niki says. “So what is wrong?”

“They’re up to something,” Toto says. “One minute Nico wants to leave and now they are plotting something together. I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like anything,” Niki says.

“No, I just don’t like this family,” Toto points out. There are plenty of things outside this house he likes, but he just doesn’t get to participate in that world when he has these three to deal with. “Don’t you think it is odd?”

“I think they are teenage boys,” Niki says. “They change their minds about who they are friends with every other week. I was the same when I was your age.”

“I have heard stories about when you were their age,” Toto says. “Do not give me that shit.”

He shakes his head and sits back down. Really, he shouldn’t be that bothered about what Lewis and Nico are up to. As long as they’re happy and they’re both getting along, he shouldn’t be trying to cause more problems for himself, but he doesn’t trust it. And if this ends up even worse than Nico and Lewis had been before, he’s going to hate himself for not sorting this now.

 

“Is it really that hard to not be an asshole?” Romain says, sitting beside Pastor.

Pastor looks up from his magazine to his brother, then decides it’s better to ignore him and turns back to what he was doing before. Romain groans loudly, but it doesn’t make his brother move, so he sits down beside him and flicks his knee.

“Piss off,” Pastor hisses, kicking his brother.

“You made it rain, didn’t you?” Romain says.

“Is what I do, isn’t it?” Pastor says.

“You do not have to be an asshole.”

“Says the asshole,” Pastor says. “Leave me alone, Romain. You would rather I were interacting with her? I am sure she would prefer it if I ignored her if I decide to pay attention to her.”

“You could try not being a jerk,” Romain says. “She is really not that annoying. If you were just nice to her a little, you would be able to see that. You might even be happier yourself. You never know.”

Pastor glares at him. He’s been going from family to family for longer than Romain has and is done with being sympathetic and caring for new kids. New kids just mean getting kicked out of the house. Why should he be nice to them?

“Just put on the bracelet,” Romain says, holding out his hand. The little, handmade bracelet is sat in the middle of his hand. Pastor’s look turns from a glare to an “are you serious” look. Romain rolls his eyes. “It is just a little bracelet. Please.”

“No.”

“Five pounds,” Romain says, knowing how to get through to his brother.

Pastor narrows his eyes. “Ten pounds.”

“Fine,” Romain says. “But you had better let Carmen see that you are wearing her bracelet.”

Pastor snatches up the bracelet and slips it over his wrist, waving it in his brother’s face.

“Happy now?”

“Yes,” Romain says, smiling smugly and standing up. “Just making sure Carmen sees it, alright?”

 

Carmen’s sat on the kitchen counter. Technically, she isn’t allowed to be sitting on the kitchen counter, but she’s taken her shoes off, so it can’t be that bad. And this is the best way to watch the rain, she thinks. She likes the way it trickles down the kitchen window, splattering against the glass and making pretty dotty patterns. She likes it better when it isn’t raining and she can blow bubbles outside, but the rain is pretty too.

“You shouldn’t be sat up there?”

Carmen almost jumps out of her skin, spinning around on the counter to find Pastor making his way over to the fridge. He’s wearing her friendship bracelet, Carmen notices. She beams, clasping her hands together. When Pastor glares at her, she only giggles.

“I was watching the rain,” she says, pointing to the window. “It’s pretty.”

“Pretty?” Pastor asks, frowning. There’s still rain splattering against the window. It isn’t even him controlling it anymore, rain being a common enough occurrence in England for his input to not be necessary.

Carmen nods and turns back to the window. “It’s pretty,” she says again. “Makes pretty patterns. I like it.”

“It does not look pretty when you are out in it,” Pastor says.

“No,” Carmen says. “But then it feels funny. It’s like having a shower in your clothes. Silly. I like it, but Gerhard says I will get a cold if I stay out in the rain, and I don’t want that to happen.”

She traces the pattern one of the drops leaves on the window before turning and grinning at Pastor,

“You can make it rain, can’t you?” she says.

Pastor nods, trying to come up with a cocky reply but his mind just goes blank in the face of the beam on his little sister’s face.

“Can you make it rain inside?” Carmen asks, bringing her knees up to her chin and resting her head upon them. When Pastor nods, her grin widens even further. “Do it? _Please_. I’ll promise I’ll stop annoying you.”

Pastor isn’t sure he believes her or not, but he never misses a chance to show off his powers. Maybe if he can get Carmen to idolise him in some way she’ll respect him and eventually leave him alone.

A little rain cloud appears over his little sister’s head, small droplets dripping onto her face and the back of her neck. Carmen practically squeals with excitement, clapping her hands a little.

“I hope I have powers like yours when I get my Physical powers,” she says, still grinning. “They are probably the best powers I have ever seen in my entire life, and I go and watch _all_ the assessments, you know?”

“You like them?” Pastor asks, a little surprised. Nobody has ever liked his powers before. He’s always associated them himself with evil powers. Bad things only happen when there are storms about in films and such. It probably doesn’t help that he’s only ever used them for bad things before now, as well, but that’s only a minor thing, he figures.

Carmen nods, her head bobbing up and down so much Pastor’s sure it’s going to come off.

“Do you have your non-phys yet?” Pastor asks.

Carmen nods. “But it’s boring. And I can’t even just do it. I have to be holding your hand or something. Non-phys are boring. I can’t wait until I get it right and then I’ll get my Physical powers like you and Romain.”

“What is it?” Pastor asks. Just out of curiosity, of course.

“I’ll show you,” Carmen says. “Or try to show you.”

She swings her legs down off of the counter and pushes herself off, only to slip on the little puddle Pastor has made on the floor, landing on the kitchen tiles with a thump and knocking her head off of the counter. The little rain cloud disappears and Pastor rushes over.

“Are you alright?”

“My head hurts,” Carmen says, tears filling her eyes.

“It’s ok, don’t cry,” Pastor says, taking hold of his little sister’s wrist in one hand whilst he lifts her up with the other. He’s only ever used his non-phys in a not so nice way, but he’s sure he can make Carmen feel better like this. “Don’t cry.”

“It hurts,” Carmen says again, sitting up a little and rubbing it with her free hand.

“Ah, let me see,” Pastor says, parting Carmen’s head to check for blood. “No, there is nothing there. Maybe you will have to sit with frozen peas on your head, yeah?”

Carmen giggles and Pastor smiles, helping her up from the floor and sitting her down on a chair this time.

“Now, you stay there. I’ll get you some peas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also my fingers automatically go to put a capital P in peas...


	11. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "As far as I know, there's not a lot you can do after a Reversal of Power," Rob explains. "I heard once there was this guy who had a R.o.P when he was filming some TV show, and he's alright now, but I don't know how they do it. He's probably the luckiest guy alive. Maybe they found something that worked, or maybe it was something to do with the guy's power that made it not so bad. I dunno. I hope they found something though. Something's better than nothing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jules is in this chapter in a recovering state. If you're not comfortable reading that, you can just skip the chapter and I'll do a little summery at the beginning of the next chapter because this is kind of important to Fernando's storyline. It's not, like, I don't know... "graphic" or anything, but it's just a little heads up. And, like I said at the end of the last McLaren chapter, this is a happy chapter.

They’ve been driving for ages, but Fernando still doesn’t know where they’re going, or why it’s so important he has to miss tutoring for it. All Fernando knows is that Ron tipped him out of bed at six in the morning and told him to get ready and get in the car.

The Spaniard’s sure he’s fallen asleep at some point. He doesn’t know when exactly the endless miles and miles of motorway turned to country lanes, but he doesn’t care anymore. He’s still trying to figure out what could be so important that he need to come, and Jenson and Kevin were allowed to stay in bed.

Ron hasn’t said anything the entire journey. At first, he’d had that smile on his face, as if he were trying to convince Fernando that everything was ok, but now he’s just bored and tired looking. Fernando’s thought of asking him where they’re going a couple of times, but he doubts he’d get any answer from the parent. And, besides, it seems like they’re nearly there now.

The winding country lanes turn into a gravelly path and Ron has to slow right down. A huge, old manor house style building comes into view, sat in the middle of large, grassy grounds. There are a lot of cars parked in front of the house, in the gravel covered car park, but none of them are particularly fancy or look like they belong to somebody who would own a house like this.

Fernando gulps, looking up at the building as Ron parks the car. He doesn’t like this. Maybe this is one of those places kids get dumped when their family doesn’t want them anymore. Maybe Ron’s finally figured out that he doesn’t belong with them and has had enough. Almost immediately, Fernando wipes out that thought as stupid. He would have had had to have brought his things with him if he was moving out, wouldn’t he?

So why was he here?

Ron stops the car in one of the few remaining parking spaces and turns to Fernando.

“Have you figured it out yet?”

Fernando looks up at the building again, then to the parent and shakes his head. Ron grins, pretty sure that this is the best idea he’s had in his entire life.

“We’re here to see a friend,” he says.

That doesn’t clear anything up for Fernando. He looks puzzled, watching Ron get out of the car before doing the same himself. His legs are shaking beneath him but he manages to keep himself upright, still trying to figure out who they could be here to visit.

Mark?

Fernando’s face brightens a little just at the thought of it. Mark lives in one of these places, doesn’t he? Maybe Ron’s brought Fernando to come and visit him, seeing as he hasn’t actually seen the Australian in nearly a year now.

No, Fernando reminds himself. He must not get too excited until he knows for sure why they’re here. Ron doesn’t actually _do_ things like taking him to go and visit Mark. The parent doesn’t do things that actually help.

“Well come on, Fernando,” Ron says, already on his way into the building. Fernando closes the car door and comes out from behind it to follow Ron inside.

Once he’s inside, he knows he definitely hasn’t come to visit Mark. Everything inside is a sterile white or glass. What was once a front hall is now a reception area, a woman in a pale blue nurse’s uniform standing behind it. Nurse’s…

Fernando turns to Ron. He’s back to having no idea what’s going on, but he doesn’t like it. Maybe Ron thinks he’s ill. Maybe Ron thinks there’s something wrong inside his head and he’s about to be committed to a mental institute or something. Ron just grins at him.

“Why are we here?” Fernando says again, slowly.

“We’ve come to see a friend,” Ron says, making his way over to the reception desk.

Fernando stays where he’s stood, looking around the room again, but there’s no more give aways as to where he is. Ron’s talking quietly to the nurse at the desk and half of Fernando wants to go and hear what he’s talking about, but he finds he can’t move his legs.

“Come on, Fernando,” Ron says, waving for Fernando to come over.

A little nervous, Fernando follows his parent and the nurse through one of the doors that lead out of the reception area and down a corridor the same gleaming white as the reception area.

“I think he might be in therapy at the moment,” the nurse says, speaking to Ron. “But you can still go in and seem him.”

“Who?” Fernando asks, making the nurse look at him for the first time. She doesn’t reply, though, smiling before spinning around and continuing to lead the two of them down the hall. Fernando still doesn’t move, folding his arms and making Ron stop walking. “Who are we visiting?”

“Come and see,” Ron says, holding out his hand for Fernando to take and follow him.

Fernando doesn’t take Ron’s hand, but follows him to the room the nurse is waiting outside. Uncertainly, he peers into the room, where a group of doctor’s in the same pale blue as the nurse are stood around a bed. Fernando freezes whilst Ron goes into the room, watching one of the doctor’s place his finger tips to the patient’s temples. It’s only when Fernando sees _who_ the patient is that he moves.

“Get off of him!” Fernando cries, rushing into the room and pulling the “doctor” away from Jules and putting himself between the two of them. “Know what you are going and I am not letting you,” he snaps, tears welling in his eyes. He doesn’t dare turn around and look at his friend, glaring at the doctor instead. “I am not letting you hurt him anymore.”

“It’s ok, Fernando,” Ron says, laughing. “They’re doctors. They’re not hurting him.”

“Are,” Fernando snaps, but Ron doesn’t understand. “Know what they are doing.”

The doctor looks confused, turning to his colleges, but none of them know what the teenager is talking about either.

“Fernando, it really is ok,” Ron says. He’s not laughing anymore, but there’s still a grin on his face and Fernando knows he just doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know what Ferrari did, not really. He doesn’t understand what happened to them, and what’s happening to Jules now.

“You do not get it,” Fernando says. “It’s not ok.”

“Fernando,” the doctor in front of Fernando says, leaning over a little to speak to him. “Would you like me to explain what we’re doing to Jules?”

“Know what you are doing to him,” Fernando hisses.

“Fernando,” the doctor says again in that same patronizing tone. “I’m a power possessor, like you, and I have a rather uncommon power that lets me see inside other power possessor’s minds.”

“Know what it does,” Fernando says. “Is… uncommon?”

The doctor nodded. “You’ve heard off it?”

Fernando glances nervously over at Ron, but nods. Maybe he’s gotten the parent wrong and Ron doesn’t have a way to hurt him and use his power, but he’s not sure.

“Is my power,” Fernando says, quietly.

“Right,” the doctor says, a little surprised. “And you think it’s a bad thing?”

“Know what it can do,” Fernando says, suddenly defensive again. The doctor can’t think Fernando’s just going to let him off just because they have the same powers.

“You know you can use it to hear Jules?” the doctor asked, stepping past Fernando and placing his hands on the patient’s temples again.

Fernando turns around, but he still won’t look at Jules. He glares at the doctor who seems to be ignoring him, but he can’t hide his curiosity for long.

“Hear him?” Fernando asks.

“Would you like me to show you?” the doctor asks, turning to Fernando, but the Spaniard shakes his head. He doesn’t know if the doctor’s going to try to “hear” him or try to make him “hear” Jules, but he doesn’t want either of those things. His powers aren’t under control and he doesn’t want to make Jules any worse than he already is. The doctor just smiles and nods, as if he’d expected Fernando to turn down the offer. “Alright, I’ll just explain it to you.”

“I’m just going to go and get some coffee, Fernando,” Ron says, making Fernando jump. The parent’s already heading out of the room before Fernando can say anything, so he just lets Ron go.

“Jules can hear us,” the doctor says when Fernando spins back around.” What we’re saying all goes into his head and his brain computes it, but he just can’t reply. Conventionally. Do you want to say hello?”

Fernando looks down at Jules, but quickly looks away again, back up to the doctor. The doctor isn’t looking at him, and doesn’t see how nervous Fernando is.

“He already knows you’re here,” the doctor says. “He was surprised to hear your voice. And happy, I think.”

“How do you hear him?” Fernando says.

“It takes practice,” the doctor says. “But you eventually figure out what different kinds of mind activity relate to different kinds of reaction.”

Fernando watches the doctor close his eyes, going further into Jules’ mind. The teenager gulps, coming a little closer, but there’s no reaction on the sleeping boy’s face. He knows what it’s like to have somebody else inside his mind. It isn’t a pleasant feeling, no matter what they had tried to tell him at Ferrari, but Fernando isn’t sure if Jules’ lack of reaction is because of the state the reversal of power put him in or if the doctors really aren’t doing anything bad.

“These are very uncommon powers, Fernando,” another one of the doctors says. She smiles when Fernando looks up at her, and Fernando’s sure it’s supposed to be settling, but it isn’t. “There are not many power possessors with them, and some people would rather use the powers to do bad, rather than good. It means other people with these powers have to hide from them. We’re pretty sure there are other power possessors out there able to do good things with their powers, but not many know how.”

“We’re the only hospital in Europe with enough possessors of this power to have an actual facility,” the first doctor says, opening his eyes and taking his hands away from Jules. “Your friend is really lucky to be here.”

“You have these powers. Fernando?” the second doctor asks.

Fernando nods, suddenly a little scared again. Only people who have _needed_ to know have ever known his powers and now he’s just blurted it out to a bunch of strangers. Nice strangers, who are looking after his friend, but strangers all the same.

“And who else knows about your powers, Fernando,” the second doctor says, coming around the bed and leading Fernando to a set of chairs at the side of the room.

“Just my tutor,” Fernando says quietly, looking down at the floor as the first doctor goes back to meddling inside Jules’ mind. “And my old family.”

“Your old family,” the doctor says. “And who are they?”

“Does it matter?” Fernando says, suddenly defensive.

“Yes,” the doctor says. “There are some bad people out there, Fernando, who would like to use our powers to do bad things to other power possessors. The longer they don’t know about your powers, the better. We’ll help you figure out your powers. We know it can be hard for a tutor who does not have the same powers as you, and we’ll help them help you. But we need to know who else knows about your powers so we can protect you.”

Fernando nods. It makes sense. And being able to control his powers, and maybe stop Ferrari from controlling _him_ and making him do horrible things to his brothers, does sound like a good idea.

“Ferrari,” Fernando says. “They were my family.”

The first doctor stops what he’s doing and Fernando spots the fear on his face before he quickly hides it. The doctor beside Fernando bites her lip.

“I know what Ferrari do,” Fernando says, quietly. They must know. It must be Ferrari they’re referring to when they talk about the bad people. “Did it to my friend. And made me do it to my brother. Could not help it. They were controlling me and I could not stop them.”

He shivers at the memory. It should be just that now, a memory. But it isn’t. Not when he dreams of it almost every night and has to worry about doing something to Jenson or Kevin when the other is not looking. It’s going to be part of his life, or at least until Andrea figures out a way to stop Ferrari from controlling him.

“That must be awful,” the second doctor says. “I think the family approaches everyone with these kinds of powers. So you must stay away from them.”

“Hate these powers,” Fernando mumbles, rubbing his eyes. “It isn’t _fair_.”

“I know,” the second doctor says. “But we can help you use them to do good things. To make people better. If you’d like to.”

 

They’re back in the car, and Ron’s sure Fernando looks at least a little bit brighter than he had done when they arrived. He hadn’t spoken much when Ron was in the room, just sitting and watching the doctor go through Jules’ therapy. Ron wasn’t sure at the time his plan was working but now he’s sure it is.

“Can we come back?” Fernando asks, about half an hour into the journey. “They say they can help me. With my powers.”

“You want to come back?” Ron asks.

Fernando nods and goes back to looking out the window. He doesn’t know if Ron has realised how special his powers are, but he doesn’t want to bring it up in case he hasn’t.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Ron says. “Maybe we’ll find a teleporter to take you next time, though. It’s a bit of a journey.”

Fernando nods, closing his eyes and sitting back in the chair. They’ll sort something out. The doctors will help him get better.


	12. Other assessments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary of the last chapter for those who didn't want to read it:  
> There is a treatment for power possessors that have suffered a reversal of power. A therapy of sorts that requires a much sort after and highly unusual power: Fernando's. When Fernando goes to visit Jules and finds out what the treatment is, he's angry at first, but then the doctors, who both have this power, help him understand that he can use his powers to help people, something he'd never thought he would be able to do before. The doctors warn him that bad people will be after him if they ever find out about his powers, wanting to use them for bad rather than good, and offer to help Fernando and his tutor to help develop his powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for siriuslywinchester, who wanted to know when Claire and Rob are going to "get it on". Now, Caroline. They're going to get it on now.

The assessments for the children that live at the House are a lot more cheerful than those Susie attends. That’s the first thing that she notices. Most of the children are just playing games amongst themselves, tig and hide and seek and Susie’s sure there’s too much messing around for this to be an actual assessment, but nobody seems to mind.

“Tia Claire!”

Bruno rushes over when he spots the Williams family standing, uncertainly, at the edge of the assessment area. Or half the Williams family, anyway. Valtteri and Felipe are at home with Frank, deciding they want to spend as little time as possible around Adrian. Rob and Claire have both tried to convince them to come, but it was no use, so they left them behind.

“Was not expecting you to be here,” Bruno says, hugging Claire and ruffling Susie’s hair, getting a glare from the teenager for his efforts.

“We came to see Jean-Eric,” Claire says. “Susie’s a little worried about him.”

They all are, if she’s honest. None of them believe Maurizio. Claire’s not sure what the Ferrari lot could have done to him, but she knows they won’t have just let him go off.

“And here I am thinking maybe you have come to see me,” Bruno says, pretending to be offended.

Claire smiles weakly, still a little uncomfortable with Bruno’s jokes. No matter how many times Rob tells her she did what was best for the family, she won’t forgive herself for sending the Brazilian away.

“He will be around here somewhere,” Bruno says. “He likes to play with Scott, but I don’t know where he is either.”

Bruno spins around, looking over the field to see if he can spot the two boys.

“There,” he says, pointing to a group of adults on the other side of the field. At their feet, Jean-Eric is sat with one of the boys Susie had met at the House, colouring in little paper books. “Sometimes they are funny about going to speak to Jean-Eric before an assessment, but they should be fine afterwards. You can go over and see, but if not you are welcome to come and sit with us until after we’re all finished.”

He beams up at Claire, hoping the parent will accept his offer. Claire tries to return the smile but there’s too much going on at the moment and she just can’t do it.

“Sure,” Rob says, jumping in. “We’ll go and say hello to Jean-Eric and let him know we’re here and then come over and sit with you. Susie, why don’t you go with Bruno?”

“No,” Susie says, definitely. She’s not going to let Ferrari get away with whatever they’ve done with her friend, and she doesn’t trust her parents enough to do the job properly on their own. “I’m coming to say hello too.”

“Alright then…” Rob says, knowing better than to argue with Susie. He nods to Bruno and the Brazilian goes back to where he had been playing with another boy. “Come on then,” Rob says, beginning to lead Susie, Claire, and Adrian over to where Jean-Eric is sat. The closer he gets, the more he’s sure he recognises some of the adults who are watching the two boys. He’s seen them at their own assessments before, following the Ferrari family around with their clip boards. He quickens his pace when he realises where he recognises them from. Jean-Eric definitely isn’t ok.

“Hey, that’s the girl that was looking for you, mate,” the other boy, Scott, says when he spots Susie making her way towards them. He points, making Jean-Eric look up, and a grin breaks onto the French boy’s face. Jean-Eric jumps up, holding onto Dan tightly, but he knows not to run over. He looks up at the grown ups that look after him and asks if he can go over, but none of them reply.

“Jean-Eric,” Susie calls, bouncing over cheerfully. “Told you I’d come and visit, didn’t I?”

Jean-Eric beams.

 _Hello_.

“Jean-Eric needs to focus before his assessment,” one of the people who were watching Jean-Eric says.

“No he doesn’t,” Susie says. That’s not how assessments and powers work.

“It’s alright,” Rob says before Susie can start an argument with someone he’d rather she didn’t. “We’ll come back and you can have a chat after the assessment.”

He smiles and tugs on Susie’s arm, trying to get her to leave. Susie rolls her eyes, but waves to Jean-Eric and follows her parents over to where Bruno is waiting for them.

“It should not be that long until it starts,” he tells them, trying to bite back his grin, but it’s clear to all four of them how excited he is. “And it does not take as long as your assessments do, which is good. I do not think the kids would be able to stay still for as long as they have to in your assessments. It’s pretty much the same thing. But quicker.”

He’s still grinning as he reaches a little table surrounded by chairs that nobody seems to be paying any attention to. There’s another boy, around Bruno’s age, sat there with his feet up on the table, totally immersed in a hand held video game.

The boy’s eyes flick off of the game as Susie and Adrian sit down and a grin bursts onto his face.

“Ooh, Bruno’s got himself a girlfriend.”

“Shut up,” Bruno says, blushing. “This is Susie. She’s practically my sister.”

“Oh,” the boy says, the grin disappearing instantly. “Sorry.”

“This is Karun,” Bruno says. “He’s my “brother”. When he wants to be.”

“Karun?” Claire says. “You’re the one that flooded the bathroom when we had a sleep over.”

“No,” Karun says, defensively. “That was all Bruno’s fault.”

“Yes,” Bruno said. “This is him.”

“There are girls,” Susie says, looking out over the field. She’s never actually _seen_ another female power possessor, except the parents, who don’t really count in her opinion. But there are definitely girls here. Quite a few of them, actually.

“Yeah,” Karun says. “But Bruno still can’t get any of them to talk to him.”

“Shut up,” Bruno says. “You can’t get a girlfriend either.”

Karun shrugs and goes back to his game.

“Why aren’t there any girls in our assessments?” Susie asks her mother, a little confused now.

“Well, you know girls develop their powers differently to boys,” Claire says. “It just means a lot of the time the girls don’t find the right family, because their powers come in so late.”

“But some of them look younger than me,” Susie says, annoyed. She must have heard the ramble about the different between boys and girls about a million times by now, when she was frustrated about her own powers not coming through.

“I don’t know about that,” Bruno says. “But they are good with their powers.”

“By that, he means they always beat him in the assessments,” Karun points out.

“They beat you too,” Bruno says. “They are good. I don’t know how long they’ve had their powers or anything, though.”

Susie still has that confused frown on her face, Claire notices, but now her eyes have left the group of girls that are making daisy chains on the grass and are back on Jean-Eric. The French boy _looks_ fine, but she saw how Rob reacted when he saw who was watching over him, and she doesn’t trust Ferrari enough to believe a word Maurizio said to them.

“How has Jean-Eric been?” Rob asks when he notices where the two women are looking.

“He beats Bruno too,” Karun says with a grin.

“Only _sometimes_ ,” Bruno says. “His powers are good. Most of the time. Sometimes he does really not so well and sometimes he does the best in the entire session. Is strange. Is like sometimes he has complete control and other times he does not have any at all.”

 

The assessments really are a lot shorter than Claire is expecting. Thankfully, there are none of the accidents Bruno and Karun have been telling them about, everything running smoothly, which seems to surprise the boys.

Susie watches Jean-Eric from across the field all the way through the assessment. She can’t really see his face from all the way over here, but she’s sure the little boy is smiling when the assessors move from him onto Scott beside him. She guesses that’s a good thing, but it still makes her uneasy. Surely he shouldn’t have this much control of his powers without his family around him.

“Can I go over now?” Susie asks, as soon as the assessment is over. She doesn’t want them to sneak off with Jean-Eric before she gets a chance to say hello. She doesn’t know how long her parents’ strange attitudes are going to last, but she doesn’t think they’re going to let her come here again.

“Sure, yeah,” Rob says. “Do you want me to come over with you?”

“I’ll be fine,” Susie says as she starts to cross the field.

Rob knows better than to try and argue and stays seated, watching her go over.

Adrian has sat quietly through the entire thing, trying to watch Karun play on his game over the older boy’s shoulder when he was playing, but now Karun’s turned the game off and Adrian is sat, staring at his feet.

“Are you alright?” Rob asks, when he notices. He hasn’t really been able to speak to him since the argument with Felipe, and he’s a little worried about how the German is holding up. There haven’t been any mishaps, or not any that Rob and Claire have notices, and they’re keeping a close eye on him.

Adrian jumps a little and nods quickly. “Fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rob presses. “You don’t seem fine mate.”

“I’m fine,” Adrian insists, still not looking up at him.

“Alright then,” Rob says, leaning back in his chair. He glances over to Claire to see what she makes of the situation, but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention, watching Susie cross the field. “Are _you_ alright?” he asks quietly, leaning in to speak to Claire.

“Yeah, fine,” Claire says, quickly.

“You’re worried about something,” Rob murmurs.

“If you’re not going to listen to me, Rob, why ask?” Claire says.

Rob huffs and falls back in his chair. He knows it’s just her way of coping, but sometimes he wishes she would just bloody talk to him. They’re supposed to be a team and sometimes it just feels like he’s there for her to snap at.

 

“Hi,” Susie says, getting a little nervous as she approaches Jean-Eric again. The adults that have been watching over him are now fussing about him, asking him questions and trying to bundle him away before Susie can come over, but she doesn’t let them.

Jean-Eric beams when he spots her and waves, pulling away from the adults that are trying to get him to leave the assessment.

_I knew you were going to come and visit someday._

“Yeah,” Susie says, laughing and ruffling Jean-Eric’s hair. “Sorry for taking so long about it.”

 _It’s alright_. _Did you see me in the assessment? Did you see how well I did?_

He grins. He hasn’t done that well in an assessment since he was still brothers with Dan. He doesn’t even think he’d done that well even when he _had_ been brothers with Dan.

“Yeah, I saw,” Susie says, not wanting to mention how confusing Jean-Eric’s sudden burst of control is. “So, how are you anyway? Happy?”

_Yeah. I love it. It’s great. I get to do whatever I want and nobody tells me what to do and I don’t even have to have a tutor._

“You don’t have a tutor?” Susie asks, a little confused. No family, no tutor. How can you have that much control of your powers and not have either of those things?

Jean-Eric shakes his head.

_I really like it. I do miss you though sometimes. And Dan._

“I miss you too,” Susie says. And she does. Jean-Eric is one of the few people she’s ever met who she genuinely wants to spend time around. She’s not sure why. She hated him before. But she cares about him now and she should never have let her mum and Rob abandon him at the House. “Maybe I could come and visit you where you’re living now. Or you could come and visit me.”

 _I’m not allowed visitors_.

The little boy looks down at the floor, sadly.

“But I thought you could do whatever you wanted,” Susie says, uncertainly. She doesn’t know what to make of the situation Jean-Eric’s in. it can’t be good, because anything to do with Ferrari can’t be good, but he’s happy, and he has a pretty good control of his powers. It doesn’t make any sense to her at all.

_Yeah, except getting visitors or going to other people’s houses. I’m not allowed to do that. I’m only allowed to go out when I come to the assessments. I don’t mind though. It’s not that bad._

“But how are you supposed to find your family if you can’t go out?” Susie asks.

“We need to get going now,” one of the adults says, pulling Jean-Eric away from Susie. “Say good bye to your friend, Jev.”

“I’ll come to the next assessment,” Susie says as they drag Jean-Eric away. “Maybe we can talk more then.”

_Yeah, and then I will be extra even better at my powers, just for you. See you later Susie._

 

“You need to talk to me, Claire,” Rob says.

It’s late. The kids are in bed. He’s just thankful they managed to go the entire evening without incident. He doesn’t know if he’s managed to convince the boys there’s nothing to worry about or if they’re planning something, but they haven’t done anything to Adrian yet. They haven’t actually spoken to him, he doesn’t think, but Adrian hasn’t made any effort to speak to them either. Rob figures he’ll deal with that problem once they’ve dealt with Jean-Eric.

But first, Claire.

“I’m an adult Rob,” Claire snaps, not looking at him. “I don’t need to do anything.”

“We’re a team,” Rob says. He stands behind Claire as she looks out the window, placing his hands on her shoulders. Her thoughts are a dark mess. They’ve been like that for a while and Rob doesn’t see that much difference after an argument anymore. He knows they’re Claire’s coping method, but it’s not working at the moment.

“We’re a team,” Rob murmurs into Claire’s ear, trying to find what she’s focusing on. “So if you’ve got a problem you need to talk to me so we can solve it.”

“Is that what you do, Rob?” Claire asks. “Solve problems? Because, to me, all you seem to do is make them.”

“No,” Rob says, his voice still soft but somehow sterner too. “We are not arguing about this Claire. You’re going to tell me what’s wrong.”

Claire spins around, but Rob keeps his hands on her shoulders. She looks up at him, trying to come up with an answer for him, but her mind goes blank. She doesn’t like this. Rob isn’t supposed to be like this. _They_ aren’t supposed to be like this. Claire bites her bottom lip, but it doesn’t stop the tears forming and she pulls away from Rob, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

“Claire?” Rob calls after her, not moving from the spot but following her wander around the room with his eyes.

“Piss off, Rob,” Claire snaps, trying to find some strength in her voice, but everything comes out shaky and weak.

“Not until you tell me what’s happened,” Rob says, managing to keep his own anger from his voice. He marches across the room to where Claire is stood, her back to him. “We need to deal with this, whatever it is. Claire?” He goes to grab hand, but Claire spins around to face him before he can, grabbing his face with both her hands and pulling him down into a kiss.

“I hate you,” Claire says as she pulls away from a stunned looking Rob.

“Oh,” Rob says. “Well, that clears everything up.”

Claire tries to stop the flicker of a smile appearing on her face, but it doesn’t work. “Are you ok?”

“You’re not that poisonous, you know,” Rob says.

Claire doesn’t ask before kissing him again.


	13. The Morning After...

Claire wakes late from what feels like the best sleep she’s had since she was a kid. Her eyes still closed, she shifts and stretches, and her arm presses against something warm and unfamiliar. Memories from last night hit her like a sack of bricks and Claire screws her eyes shut. Maybe it was just a dream. A really, really bad dream.

Claire has almost convinced herself when Rob presses a sleepy kiss to the top of her head and no, last night definitely wasn’t a dream.

Slowly, Claire opens her eyes, only to find Rob is watching her with a dopey smile on his face and Claire has to try very hard not to melt there and then. Every moment from the night before is now permanently etched into her memory, though, and that helps a lot.

“Morning,” Rob says, with a smile that just makes Claire want to scream at him. He leans in for another kiss but Claire jerks away, the look in her eye warning Rob to not even bother trying that again. Rob looks down at her, confused.

“We can never let that happen again,” Claire says, deadly serious.

“What’s wrong?” Rob asks, sitting back and letting Claire sit up. He can’t figure out what exactly he did wrong. He didn’t start any of this. He wanted it, yeah, but no more than Claire had done.

“Just get out, Rob,” Claire says, screwing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath.

“Claire,” Rob says, gently, placing a hand on Claire’s shoulder.

“JUST GET OUT!” Claire screams at her, angry tears appearing at the corner of her eyes.

She doesn’t open her eyes, but can feel the weight on the bed lift and listens to Rob shuffle about and get dressed. Only when she hears the door close quietly does she open her eyes, glad to find the bedroom empty. With shaking hands, Claire wipes her eyes and goes through the mental check list of everything she has to do today.

The kids have tutoring and they probably won’t even be awake yet so she needs to-

She fucked Rob.

-she needs to get them up. And they need to sit down and have a chat with Adrian before his tutoring session so-

She screwed up.

-so that… that needs to be sorted out. She wants to have a look and see if she can find anything out about the girls at the assessment because-

She fucked Rob. There’s no ignoring it now. She screwed up and she fucked Rob and she never wants to leave this bed again.

 

“Shu-shu-shush,” Felipe says, in a way that’s supposed to be soothing. He holds onto his brother’s wrist with one hand, the other patting gently on Valtteri’s cheek in an attempt to wake him up. The dreams are getting more frequent recently. He knows they are. This is the fifth time in as many nights Felipe’s been woken up by his brother’s nightmares. They haven’t been this bad since Felipe first arrived and he really doesn’t want to go back to that.

Valtteri gasps for breath as if resurfacing from a dive and his eyes flutter open. It takes him a couple of seconds to figure out where he is and what’s going on, then he closes his eyes again, relieved.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, knowing he must have woken Felipe.

“Is fine, is nearly morning anyway” Felipe says. “Tortay?”

Valtteri sighs and sits up, pulling his hand away from Felipe’s to rub sleep from his eyes. He shakes his head, not because he doesn’t want to talk about it, but just because he doesn’t know what to say. It’s the same dream, every night now, and there’s nothing Felipe can do to make it any better. Well, not anything he isn’t already doing.

“It’s Adrian,” Felipe says. Surprisingly, it’s the first time he’s made the accusation, but they’ve both known since the dreams started to become every night again. It has to be him.

“Is not anything we can do, Felipe,” Valtteri says. They’ve already tried going to their parents and that didn’t work. They can’t _touch_ Adrian without getting the whole “you don’t know what it’s like” speech from Rob and Claire, and Felipe and Valtteri don’t really want to go down that road either. Yeah, they want Adrian out, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to try and hurt him more than he already is.

“Have you told Rob or Claire about your dreams?” Felipe asks.

Valtteri shakes his head. It’s like admitting they’re a problem, and he doesn’t want to do that. He’s not even sure Claire and Rob know he still even has the dreams.

“Need to do this,” Felipe says. “Maybe it will make them see what damage they are doing. Need to know this is hurting us.”

“Us?” Valtteri asks, looking at his brother.

Felipe looks down at the duvet, biting his lip.

“Felipe?” Valtteri urges.

“Is nothing,” Felipe says. “Is just… is nothing, do not worry about me. Need to tell Rob and Claire what Adrian is doing to you.”

Valtteri watches his brother closely, but he knows Felipe isn’t going to say anymore now, so he instead makes a mental note to try to get whatever is wrong with his brother out of him later.

“And what if they don’t believe me?” Valtteri asks.

“Will have to believe you,” Felipe says. He could understand Rob and Claire not believing _him_ or Susie, but not Valtteri. It isn’t that Valtteri is their favourite, Felipe knows that now. He’s just the least likely to try to cause trouble. “It will be ok,” he says, putting an arm around his brother when he sees Valtteri is still shaking. “I am not going to let him hurt you and you are not going to let him hurt me. We’ll tell Rob and Claire and they will have to believe us and-.”

_“JUST GET OUT!”_

Both boys jump up and are on the landing in an instant, peering up the stairs to where the adults sleep, but there’s silence there now.

“Maybe now is not the best time to go and disturb them,” Felipe mutters and Valtteri nods.

“Are they arguing again?” Susie asks, rubbing sleep from her own eyes as she comes out from her room and joins the boys in peering up the stairs.

“Would seem so,” Valtteri says. “But is a little early for that, isn’t it? Has to be a new record for Rob.”

“Well, it’s hardly surprising after last night,” Susie mutters, shivering with disgust.

Both her brothers just look confused though.

“What happened last night?” Felipe asks.

“You mean you didn’t hear it?” Susie asks.

“Here what?” Valtteri asks whilst Felipe shakes his head.

Susie cringes. “Lucky for some, hey,” she mutters, going back into her own room and leaving the boys staring after her.

“If she is saying what I think she is saying, that is disgusting,” Valtteri says, eventually.

 

Claire lets Rob deal with the kids in the end. It feels like it’s always her job to go through everything and sometimes she just needs a break from everything. Right now, she just needs a break from everything. It takes her a while to get out of bed, have a shower, and get dressed. By the time that’s all done she can hear the tutors arriving down stairs and she _knows_ she should be down there to help Adrian out, but she just can’t stomach seeing Rob right now.

Instead of going down stairs, she crosses the landing on the top floor of the house and knocks gently on her father’s bedroom door, hoping he’s in. She just needs to talk to him. She knows he’s going to be ashamed and probably disgusted but he’s her dad and he’s probably the only one that will understand.

“Yeah, it’s alright, you can come in.”

When Claire opens the door, her father is already sat at his desk, writing away on scraps of paper. Claire stands in the doorway, a little nervously, and waits for him to finish. There’s a lump in her throat stopping her from speaking, but she doesn’t know what she would say even if it wasn’t there. When Frank eventually looks up, he notices the tears in Claire’s eyes and sighs, disappearing and reappearing sat on the bed and stretching his arms out for Claire to fall into them. She does, immediately, letting go of everything and sobbing into her father’s chest whilst he runs his fingers through her hair.

“There there,” he says, softly, rubbing soothing circles into her back whilst he holds her. “What’s brought all this on then?”

Claire shudders and tries to stop herself from crying, but it doesn’t work. She’s started now and there’s no holding back. “I am trying,” she whispers, pulling away from her father and sitting on the bed beside him. “I am trying _so hard_.”

“I know you are, love,” Frank says, gently, still rubbing Claire’s back whilst she continues to shudder. “I know.”

“And I am just so scared of losing them,” Claire moans. “And there’s nothing I can do to protect them.”

“You do everything you can for those kids,” Frank says.

“But it’s not enough,” Claire says, shaking her head. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Dad. I think about it _all the time_. What if it’s one of ours next?”

“It won’t be,” Frank says, even though he knows he can’t guarantee that and Claire isn’t going to be satisfied until that happens. “Claire, calm down.”

“It’s just everything,” Claire says, unable to stop the small sob from escaping. “It’s what’s happened to Adrian and knowing I can’t make that better and it’s the way Bruno still likes me even though I _abandoned_ him and then Rob is just Rob and I _fucking hate_ him sometimes.”

“Yes,” Frank says. “I heard.”

Claire freezes, staring at her father and trying to figure out what he means. The gleam in his eye tells her he knows what happened last night and Claire wants the ground to open up and swallow her right there and then. Frank can’t help but laugh a little as Claire flopped down onto the bed, groaning into the pillow. Sometimes it was easy to see where Susie got little traits from.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Claire says, her words muffled by the pillow.

“It’s fine,” Frank says. “I’m just… glad you’re happy.”

Claire shakes her head, still bright red when she sits up.

“It’s never happening again,” she says. It just _can’t_. it shouldn’t have happened this time.

“Oh,” Frank says. “And why’s that? You love him, don’t you?”

Claire nods. “I’ve not felt this way about anyone since… since I was a teenager.” But that’s not the point and she _knows_ it’s not the point. “I can’t do it, Dad. Not on top of everything else.”

“Alright,” Frank says, pulling his daughter into a one armed hug. “I know. Do you want me to talk to Rob for you?”

“No,” Claire says, definitely.

“Alright then,” Frank says. “But you need to, alright. That lad puts up with enough of your shit as it is. And I know you can’t help it, but he cares about you. He deserves an explanation.”

“Alright,” Claire says, nodding. She knows he’s right, but she also knows the next time she sees Rob she’s going to burst into tears. “Thank you.”

“It’s alright,” Frank says as Claire stands. “You know you can come and talk to me if you need to, ok? I know you’re main priority is the kids but you can’t look after them if you’re not well, can you?”

“I will,” Claire says, nodding before disappearing back out of the room and leaving Frank in peace again.


	14. Support

Andrea’s a little surprised to find a smile on Fernando’s face when the teenager lets him into the house. For a couple of seconds, Andrea isn’t sure if it’s the same boy, but Fernando’s enthusiasm as he pulls his tutor into the house is the same as that when Andrea had first met him. It’s Fernando back.

“You’re in a good mood,” Andrea says.

“Do not need to say it like that?” Fernando says, pouting a little.

Andrea just ruffles the teenager’s hair, still a little amused and trying to work out why Fernando’s in such a good mood.

“Are you ready to get started?” Andrea asks.

Fernando grins and nods, eagerly. He hasn’t been this keen to start a tutoring session in months.

“Alright,” the tutor says, laughing as Fernando tries to pull him up the stairs. He nods in to Ron, who’s sat in the living room, as he passes and follows Fernando up the stairs. “What’s happened?”

“Am not allowed to be happy now?” Fernando asks with a cheeky smile. It’s beginning to worry Andrea a little. Something must have happened and it might _seem_ to be a good thing, but Andrea knows better than to take everything as it seems to be.

“Of course you’re allowed to be happy,” Andrea says. “But _why_ are you happy?”

Fernando just grins as he sits back on his bed, sitting on his hands to stop him fiddling too much. Andrea closes the door behind him like he knows Fernando prefers and leans against it, waiting for an explanation from the teenager.

“Ron took me to go and see Jules,” Fernando says.

“Oh,” Andrea says. That doesn’t make any sense at all. He wouldn’t think Fernando would be _happy_ about that, not unless there was some kind of improvement in the French boy’s condition.

“The doctors there, they have the same powers as me,” Fernando explains. “My powers are not just for doing bad things. They can help people too. They can help Jules.”

He’s been thinking about it ever since they came back from the hospital. His powers need work. They need _a lot_ of work, but now he has a purpose to work towards. It isn’t just about hiding his powers. He can _help_ people with his powers, like Andrea does and Jenson does. Not only can he help people, but he can save lives. He doesn’t have to ruin them.

Andrea stares at his young charge for a couple of moments, then his face splits into a grin.

“Fernando, that’s amazing!” he cries, hugging Fernando back when the teenager leaps into his arm.

“They say they are going to talk to you,” Fernando says, beaming. “To help you help me. Am going to have control of my powers, Andrea. And am going to be able to help people.”

“Wait,” Andrea says, letting Fernando go. “They know you have your powers?”

Fernando nods, blushing a little. “Had to tell them. Thought they were hurting Jules and didn’t want them to lie to me like Ferrari did. Oh, they know about Ferrari too. I did not tell them, I swear. They already knew.”

He falls back onto the bed, a little calmer now after the original excitement. He smiles up at his tutor, the grin on Andrea’s face having fallen a little when he heard that somebody else knew about Fernando’s powers. He’s been helping Fernando keep his powers secret since the teenager first got them. He doesn’t know how he feels about someone he doesn’t even know knowing about them. Especially after what Ferrari did to Fernando.

“This is good, Andrea,” Fernando says when he notices his tutor isn’t quite as happy as Fernando thinks he should be. “Can help people now. Or will be able to, one day. Can help people like Jules.”

“I should go to see them,” Andrea says, making a mental note to put that on his to do list, as well as everything else he has to do for Fernando.

“Yes,” Fernando says, nodding. “They say they want to speak to you, anyway. So you can help me.”

“Alright,” Andrea says, still not entirely convinced these people are good people. After all, wouldn’t he have heard of them if they _were_ good people? “Should we get started?”

 

“Pastor! Pastor! Coma and see!”

Pastor’s seeing his tutor out when Carmen starts calling for him. Normally, the cheerful cries would make the teenager groan but, today, it doesn’t. He nods to his tutor as he leaves and then disappears back into the house to try and find his sister.

Carmen is sat on the kitchen counter again, swinging her legs back and forth and looking very proud of herself.

“What do you want?” Pastor asks and, normally, there would be a scowl on his face but, again, today there isn’t.

Carmen reaches her hand out for her brother, still grinning. “Said I was going to show you my power, but I never got to.”

“Oh,” Pastor says, coming over. He’d forgotten about that day until now, Carmen having really stayed out of his way since then, but he’s still curious as to what his sister’s non-phy power is. He comes close enough for Carmen to wrap both her little hands around his wrist without her falling off of the counter, and the little girl closes her eyes.

Pastor’s mind is flooded with the sound of waves gently crashing down on a beach. It’s quiet at first, but the sound gets gradually louder and louder until, if he closes, his eyes, he can imagine he’s there. Before he can succumb to the urge to close his eyes, though, Carmen takes her hands away, grinning triumphantly.

“I imagine a place, and then I can make you hear it,” she explains. “My tutor says one day I can make you see it too.”

“Where was it?” Pastor asks, the memories of the waves already fading.

“The beach where Mama and Papa used to take me on holiday,” Carmen says, quietly.

The smile that had been brightening the little girl’s face has vanished, leaving Pastor a little confused.

“Are you ok?” he asks. “Do you… do you get homesick?”

“A little,” Carmen says, nodding. “Sometimes, when I think of home, I can here Mama and Papa and it’s like I’m there. I miss them a lot. But it’s ok because I know it’s better that I’m here.”

She smiles again, but the gleam in her eyes has gone and Pastor knows it isn’t real. He’s not sure how to react to that, but he knows he doesn’t like the sad smile on his little sister’s face.

“Maybe one day, when you’re powers are a little better, you will be able to go and see them again,” Pastor says. “That will be good.”

“Do you miss your family?” Carmen asks.

Pastor thinks back to the family he’d left behind. They were supposed to love him unconditionally, but that hadn’t happened, not when they figured out what he could do. He shakes his head. He doesn’t miss them at all and there’s no way he’s going back. Ever.

“Oh,” Carmen says.

“it’s alright,” Pastor says. “I have a new family now, don’t I? Romain and Gerhard. And you.”

He smiles and there’s a faint sparkle in Carmen’s eyes.

“Come on,” Pastor says, holding out his hand so Carmen can hop off of the counter. “Shall I show you something that really annoys Romain?”

 

“Where are the kids?” Claire asks as she comes down the stairs.

“Felipe and Valtteri went to the cinema,” Rob says. “I think you can guess where Susie is. And Adrian’s still with the tutor.”

He’s been up there for a while now and Rob’s starting to get worried. He knows the tutors are more than capable of dealing with the children, but he can’t help but worry. He knows what it’s like to see something like what Adrian’s seen – nothing quite as bad as a reversal of power, but close – and he hopes Adrian knows he can turn to Rob if he needs support, but he knows it’s more than likely Adrian won’t come to either of them for help.

“Can we talk?” Claire asks, and she’s even more nervous than she had been speaking to her father, but this time she knows she can’t cry. She is _not_ going to cry in front of Rob.

“Talk, yeah?” Rob says. “Not argue.”

“Talk,” Claire clarifies, glad Rob isn’t smiling for once. She sits down beside him on the sofa, being sure to keep a gap between the two of them. “What happened last night cannot happen again.”

“Ok,” Rob says, slowly. He doesn’t really understand but he’s hoping Claire will make sure everything’s clear. Not that her track record does anything to suggest she’ll do that.

“We. Cannot. Do. That,” Claire says, stressing every word. She doesn’t know which part is most important and she doesn’t know how to explain but she needs Rob to understand.

“Alright,” Rob says. That hasn’t cleared anything up at all.

“And the kids cannot find out,” Claire says.

“I think they might already know,” Rob says, wincing a little. None of them have said anything to him, but the looks Susie and Valtteri were giving him this morning spoke enough.

“You told them?” Claire cries, jumping up and glaring at Rob.

“Of course not,” Rob says, standing and grabbing hold of Claire’s hand before she can march off. “Claire, we still need to talk.”

“I’ve said everything I need to say,” Claire says, pulling her hand away from Rob’s. She doesn’t march off, though, so Rob places his own hands at his side.

“No you haven’t,” he says. “Claire, what is wrong? You can tell me, you know.”

Claire looks up at Rob for a moment, but quickly looks away. He’s looking at her like _that_ again and she just can’t do it. Not now. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before she does something stupid.

“Piss off Rob,” she mutters eventually.

“Ok, I’ll talk,” Rob says. He has to try something. “I… I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than I’ve been since I came here. And, I mean, we have dealt with a lot of shit. Our kids are trouble magnets. But I’d chose this over anything else offered any day of the week. Because this… we work. But if you think we don’t then you have to say, Claire. We have to sort it out.”

“There’s nothing that needs sorting out,” Claire says.

“Yes there is,” Ron insists, taking hold of Claire’s hand again and rubbing his thumb over the back of it. “Claire, I know how you’re feeling, remember? You just need to tell me _why_.”

Claire shakes her head. She should just tell Rob what she’s told her father, she knows, but Rob won’t understand.

“Do you want me to guess?” Rob asks. “Because I will if you want? We’ve got to get this sorted out Claire. You’re not happy, so I’m not happy. And the kids aren’t going to be happy either when they notice.”

“Don’t you dare bring the kids into this,” Claire snaps, pulling away from Rob. “I am a good mother.”

“I never said-.”

“I am doing everything I can to look after those kids,” Claire yells. “You said yourself. We have a bunch of trouble magnets. But I love them. They are my entire life and I am trying my best to do everything I can to make sure they do not get hurt. But I can’t do enough. I can’t protect them, Rob, and do you have any idea how much that kills me? What if it’s Valtteri next time? Or Susie or Felipe? I can’t do anything to stop it, Rob. I can’t protect him.”

“Him?” Rob asks.

Claire stops, realising what she’s said. “Them,” she says, quickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand and glaring at Rob. “I meant them.”

“You _said_ him,” Rob says, taking a step towards Claire when she steps back. “Who can’t you protect?”

“I meant them,” Claire snaps, but she can’t stop herself from shaking now.

“Claire,” Rob tries again. “Who? Adrian? Jules?”

Claire just shakes her head, trying to stop herself crying but it isn’t work.

“Who, Claire?” Rob demands, but Claire just keeps shaking her head. “Bruno?”

Claire goes very still for a couple of moments, then shakes her head again, only slightly. She glances up at Rob, her thoughts loud and red and fiery and, when she looks away again, Rob understands. Or he thinks he understands.

Not Bruno.

“Oh Claire,” Rob says, wrapping his arms around her to try to calm her down. “Claire, that wasn’t your fault.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Claire whispers. She wants it to sound angry and annoyed but she can’t find the strength. She can’t find the strength to push Rob away, either, and she just lets him hold her. “Felipe wasn’t your fault, but you still blame yourself for that.”

“That’s different,” Rob says, kissing the top of Claire’s head before resting his head on the same spot. “That was just a glitch. And I was an adult. You were just a kid, Claire. You were Susie’s age.”

“And now I’m not,” Claire says. “Now I’m older and I have to look after them Rob. I have to make sure that does not happen again but I can’t and you don’t understand what it’s like to have part of your family ripped away from you and I know you think you do but you just don’t and I can’t lose them and I can’t lose you.”

Her words turn into a slurred mess of sobs and Rob has no idea what she’s saying anymore, so he just holds her tighter, moving them so that they can both sit down and letting Claire cry onto his shoulder until she eventually fell asleep.


	15. Other Options

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Under normal circumstances, if a power possessor feels like they are not in the correct family, there's an ongoing discussion for weeks, even months, before a change is made. Connections are tricky things and it's easy to get confused when family life isn't exactly blissful. Under normal circumstances, once a decision for a power possessor to leave is made, the parents of the family will search for somewhere else for the power possessor to live. That could be another family, or in an institute like the House. Sometimes circumstances aren't normal...

Susie’s lying with her head in Toto’s lap whilst they watch some film. Niki is out with friends and the boys are upstairs. Susie doesn’t think she’s ever seen it this peaceful at the Mercedes house whilst both the boys are in, but she doesn’t say anything. She knows Toto’s worried about them, but Toto made her promise they weren’t going to worry about anything today. No Lewis and Nico, no Jean-Eric. Just the two of them and a really bad film.

“Toto?” Susie says, taking her eyes off of the screen to look up at him.

“Hmm?”

“If we’re ever in a haunted house and I trip up whilst a crazy axe murderer is chasing us, promise you’ll leave me there as punishment for being stupid.”

Toto snorts back a laugh, brushing his hands through Susie’s hair. “I promise.”

Susie grins up at him, but her smile falls when Toto leans down to steal a kiss from her. He stops, his face inches from hers.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“I just remembered,” Susie says. Her eyes have gone wide and Toto wouldn’t have been surprised if he were to look up and find a crazy axe murderer leaning over him.

“Remembered what?” Toto asks, huffing a laugh.

“Mum,” Susie says, pushing herself up to sit beside Toto on the sofa. “And _Rob_.”

“What about them?” Toto asks, even more confused. They both promised there was going to be no worrying today, and if Susie breaks that promise, she has to suffer the forfeit.

“They were-.” She shivers in disgust, not really wanting to even admit it. It’s disgusting.

“Were what?” Toto asks. Susie shoots him a glare, not answering the question, and Toto takes a couple of seconds of confused staring before figuring it out. “Oh.”

“’Oh’ is right,” Susie says, shaking her head. “They’re _adults._ They shouldn’t be doing that kind of thing.”

“So they are… together?” Toto asks, grimacing a little.

“I don’t know,” Susie says. “Sounded like it last night, sure. It was revolting. But then they were arguing like normal this morning. I don’t even know.”

“You _heard_ it,” Toto says, clearly just as disgusted as Susie.

Susie nods, spluttering a little as she tries to find words for how disgusted she is.

“That’s… that’s like if Niki…”

“DON’T!” Susie cries before groaning and burying her face in Toto’s chest, making the Austrian laugh. “Now I’m going to have _that_ image in my head and I hate you.”

“Hey,” Toto says. “My family is screwed up but at least they’re not screw-.”

“ _Sto-o-o-op!_ ” Susie groans. “I’m going to be sick.”

Toto grins but knows better than to say anymore. He turns back to the film but he’s no idea what’s going on anymore and they’re only interrupted again by the sound of someone thundering down the stairs.

Nico pokes his head through the doorway that separates the living room and hallway.

“We’re going out,” he says.

“We?” Toto asks.

“Lewis and I,” Nico says. “We’ll be back later.”

He disappears back through the door and Toto has to push Susie off of himself to go after Nico.

“What do you mean you are going out?” Toto asks, his arms folded.

“Well, I heard about this magical place called outside,” Lewis says. “And I thought it might be interesting.”

Toto narrows his eyes at the smug smirk Lewis gives him and really he should have known better, so he’ll let the lack of respect slide.

“You are both going out?” Toto asks.

“Yes,” Nico says before Lewis can come up with another sarcastic answer.

“Together,” Toto says.

“What’s your problem?” Lewis asks, laughing. “We’re fine, Toto. We don’t need you to come and hold out hands.”

“Alright,” Toto says. “Do you know when you are going to be back?”

“Do you need to know when we’re going to be back?” Lewis asks, taking hold of Nico’s hand and disappearing.

Toto lets himself roll his eyes now neither of the boys are here to see it. He doesn’t like them getting along. It’s too suspicious.

“Everything ok?” Susie asks, joining Toto in the hallway.

“Yeah,” Toto says. He’s not going to let the boys ruin this. “Come on. Will rewind the film.”

 

Lewis is watching Nico closely as they walk up the street. He didn’t want to just appear at the destination. He wants to talk to his brother somewhere he knows they’re not going to have an interference, and on the way to where they need to be seems like the best place to do it. But Nico doesn’t seem to want to talk, and Lewis isn’t entirely sure what he wants to say himself.

“How long have you been feeling like this?” Lewis asks.

Nico carries on walking before he realises Lewis is talking to him, when he stops and frowns at his brother.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“How long have you wanted to leave?” Lewis asks.

Nico looks Lewis up and down, but there isn’t a smirk on his brother’s face. This isn’t some snide remark about him never finding anywhere to fit. It’s almost as if his brother genuinely cares.

He shrugs. “A while.”

“Since we’ve been arguing?” Lewis asks, uncertainly.

Nico shakes his head. “Before then. Why do you think I’ve been arguing? You didn’t suddenly become an asshole, you know. I just stopped wanting to put up with your shit and Toto’s shit and Niki’s shit.”

That’s what he’s been doing. That’s what he’s been doing the moment Lewis arrived at the family: putting up with everybody’s shit. And he’s sick of it. He’s sick of it all. Once he realised _why_ he was sick of everything, once he realised this all means he probably belongs somewhere else, things got better. He stopped caring so much.

“And you’re sure this is the right thing to do?” Lewis asks.

They went through the website together. They may not be brothers, but Nico’s pretty sure he and Lewis can still be friends once all this is sorted out. The agency hadn’t seemed _that_ bad to Lewis, but he still doesn’t think this is a good idea. They should speak to Toto and Niki. This wasn’t how things had worked when he left his last family, and it makes Lewis feel a little nervous.

Nico shrugs again. “It’s the best option I’ve got.”

Lewis isn’t sure he agrees with that, but he doesn’t think Nico’s going to listen to him right now, and he’d rather be at his brother’s side if Nico is going to get himself in a mess than argue with the German and leave Nico to deal with whatever he faces himself.

The address Nico and Lewis found belongs to an old laundrette that looks like it’s been closed for years. There’s a thick layer of grime over the windows, posters for fairs and carnivals that have long past stuck on the glass. The lights are off inside and the closed sign is stuck in the door.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Lewis asked, looking around. The entire street looks pretty abandoned to him. It’s a mixture of residential houses and small shops, but it doesn’t look like any of the shops are open.

“It’s what the website said, isn’t it?” Nico snaps, but he’s not so sure of himself. He looks up to the flat above the laundrette, but it looks as bleak and lifeless as the rest of the street. “Maybe there’s a back entrance. Come on.”

Lewis wouldn’t usually take orders from Nico, but he follows his brother around to a tiny little alleyway that leads to the back alley that runs down the back of the street. It’s covered in litter, but there’s a well trodden trail through it leading to the back of the laundrette.

“See?” Nico says.

Lewis rolls his eyes but says nothing, following Nico down the trail to a fire escape that leads up to back door of the flat above the laundrette. Nico places a hand on the banister leading up the side of the steps and looks up to the door, a little nervous.

“We don’t have to do this today if you don’t want to,” Lewis says.

“We need to get this done sooner rather than later,” Nico snaps, but he’s still a little too nervous to take the first step. He can’t see Lewis stood behind him, but he can imagine the other teenager smirking at him. He’s not a chicken, so he takes a step before Lewis can call him one and leads the Brit up the fire escape to the door.

There’s a doorbell on the wall beside the door and Nico presses it before he can wind himself up and get too nervous to do that as well. They can both hear the shrill ring come from inside the flat and wait, holding their breath, for someone to come and answer the door.

Nico has to remind himself again that this is a good thing. This is the right thing, and the only thing he can do if he wants to make his powers better and make himself feel better. He isn’t going to run away from this now.

“Are you-?”

The door opens before Lewis can finish his question and they both look up at a tall, frizzy-haired woman. She frowns down at the two of them for a moment before her face breaks into a smile.

“And who are you then?”

“My name’s Nico,” Nico says, whilst Lewis shuffles back a little, not trusting the smile. “And I need to find myself a new family.”

“Well,” the woman says, the beam growing. “You’ve come to the right place. Do you want to come inside and we can make you an appointment.”

Nico’s still a little nervous. He knows better than to wander into houses he doesn’t know with total strangers, no matter how sure he is that he needs the company’s help to get a new family.

“It’s alright,” Lewis says, squeezing Nico’s shoulder. He hopes it doesn’t sound patronising, but he still notices Nico roll his eyes before he shrugs his hand away and follows the woman inside.

“And what’s your name, sweetie?” the woman asks Lewis, closing the door behind them. They’re stood in a smart looking front hall. An almost empty coat stand is stood in the corner beside the door, and a small sofa takes up most of the space.

“Lewis,” Lewis says as the woman offers them a seat on the sofa. “But I’m not here for a family. Just here for Nico.”

“Of course,” the woman says. “I’m just going to go and get the diary to make you an appointment to speak to an advisor, Nico. You two wait here a moment.”

Lewis is sure if the fake smile on her face grows anymore she’s going to push her own eyes out. The woman turns and leaves through one of the doors leading out of the hallway, leaving the boys alone and in silence but for the ticking of a large cuckoo clock, which Lewis is sure isn’t telling the right time.

“I don’t like this, Nico,” Lewis says, quietly. He isn’t sure what it is about this place, but it’s giving him the creeps.

“Well, it is a good job you have found your family with Toto and Niki then, isn’t it,” Nico says. He doesn’t like it either, but he isn’t going to tell Lewis that. He isn’t going to admit defeat before he’s even _tried_.

Lewis doesn’t reply. He’s given up trying to insist that Nico’s part of their family too, because the German clearly doesn’t believe it and, considering how much they’ve been arguing recently, Lewis isn’t sure he believes it too much either. But he knows he can’t let Nico go through with this. He watches his brother make an appointment with the nameless woman, already trying to figure out a way to stop this.


	16. Warnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian's non-phys power fall into the unusual category for a completely different reason to Fernando's. It's *very* common, especially amongst "parent" power possessors. So common, in fact, that a lot of people with the power do not realise they have powers at all, and some experts argue it isn't a power at all. Or at least not one that comes from the same place as normal non-phys powers. Sebastian's an odd case in that his non-phys wasn't completely developed and he developed physical powers as well, which went some way to convincing people the power is the same as conventional non-phys. That doesn't explain it's abundance in apparently "normal" people.  
> But then, things concerning ghosts have never been completely easy to explain.

There’s a field at the back of the Ferrari family home, and Kimi and Sebastian are lying in it now. Their tutors are gone for the day, and the sun’s shining, so Kimi has decided it’s best to take his little brother out of Britta’s hair for a while, knowing how stressed she is. Only, now, Kimi’s fallen asleep, his cap covering his face, and Sebastian has grown bored of looking up at the few fluffy clouds that dot the sky.

He sits up, dry grass falling from his hair, and looks down at his brother. He knows better than to wake Kimi up now, but he doesn’t want to just leave his brother sleeping here. What if wolves attack? Ok, he’s never actually _seen_ any wolves around here, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Sebastian flops back down onto the grass and groans loudly, glancing over at Kimi to see if he’s woken him up, but the Finn doesn’t show any signs of consciousness.

“Bored,” Sebastian moans with another sigh, still getting no reaction from Kimi. “Bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.”

One of the light, fluffy clouds passes over the sun, making everything dim and chilly for a couple of moments. Sebastian sits back up, scratching his head and making even more dry grass fall out of his hair. In the distance, it looks like there’s someone watching them.

Hardly anybody walks out here, the people from the little town preferring to leave the family to themselves. Sebastian has come out into the field a lot and he’s never seen anybody who isn’t part of his family out here.

Another cloud passes in front of the sun and Sebastian shivers. The figure in the distance is definitely watching him, Sebastian knows it, but he doesn’t come any closer.

“Hello?” Sebastian calls, waving a hand. Maybe they’re lost and he can help them.

The figure doesn’t move, and it hits Sebastian who it is. Or _what_ it is. He glances down at Kimi, but his brother is still asleep and shows no signs of waking any time soon. It won’t hurt to go and see the visitor, will it?

The monster that isn’t really a monster waits for Sebastian to reach him before turning around. He says nothing, expecting the young boy to follow, and Sebastian does. After a couple of minutes, Sebastian spins around, remembering he’s left Kimi sleeping, but he can’t see his brother now.

“Where are we going?” Sebastian asks as he turns back to the monster that isn’t really a monster. He _knows_ that the monster that isn’t really a monster isn’t _bad_ , but he doesn’t know what it is at all really. He doesn’t think Britta would like him wandering off if she knew.

The monster that isn’t really a monster doesn’t say anything.

Sebastian rolls his eyes but continues to trudge along beside the monster that isn’t really a monster.

“Alright,” he says. “But we have to be back before four o’clock. Because then I have to go and have dinner and Britta will be angry if I’m late and Kimi will be worried.”

Still, the monster that isn’t really a monster doesn’t say anything. If it hadn’t already spoken to Sebastian before, he would think it couldn’t speak. But he knows that’s not true. The monster (that isn’t really a monster) is the one that told him he isn’t in a real family.

“Who are you?” Sebastian asks after another short silence. He doesn’t expect the monster that isn’t really a monster to answer this time, but the creature stops and looks down at him. Sebastian tries to smile, but the monster that isn’t really a monster still scares him a little, so he can’t.

The monster that isn’t really a monster takes hold of Sebastian’s hand and, suddenly, everything goes dark.

 

_Did really well in my assessment Dan. Maybe if I do even better next time then Maurizio will let me come and see you. I miss you Dan. I miss you even more than before. But you don’t answer me anymore…_

Jean-Eric doesn’t look up when the door to his room opens. He screws his eyes even tighter shut and pulls Dan closer to him, as if the toy might protect him.

Maurizio laughs. “What’s the matter?”

_I did really well in the assessment this time. I do not think I will have to do it again. I am ok._

“You know I can’t understand you when you speak like that,” Maurizio says in a sing song voice.

_You CAN. I did well in my assessment and my powers are good and you can hear me. Leave me alone. Please._

“Oh, Jean-Eric,” Maurizio says, coming into the room and closing the door behind him. “You can’t stay at the top in your assessments if you don’t continue with your therapy.”

_Do not want therapy._

“You don’t want to do well in your assessments?” Maurizio asks, crouching down in front of Jean-Eric.

Peeking out from behind Dan, Jean-Eric shakes his head. Maurizio is still smiling, but he doesn’t look happy.

“Well,” he says. “I guess there’s nothing I can do about that then.”

The Italian stands, snatching Dan as he does so and pulling the teddy out of Jean-Eric’s grip. The French boy jumps up in an instant, reaching for the toy, but Maurizio pulls it out of his reach.

_Give him back._

“You can have him back when you lose your attitude, Jean-Eric,” Maurizio says, holding Dan a little higher when Jean-Eric tries to jump for the toy. “I don’t like the way you’ve been speaking to me lately. You’ve been being very rude.”

_You’re mean._

“I suppose I am,” Maurizio says, taking Dan as he leaves the room and slams the door shut behind him.

 

Sebastian doesn’t know how long he’s been walking with the monster that isn’t really a monster, but he doesn’t know where they are now. It’s dark now and the breeze makes Sebastian shiver every time it slides down his back. The monster that isn’t really a monster is still holding onto Sebastian’s hand, not tightly, but firmly, and Sebastian doesn’t try to pull his hand away.

“We need to go back soon,” Sebastian says. “It’s nearly dinner time.”

The child’s stomach rumbles, making him giggle, but the monster that isn’t really a monster doesn’t laugh. He doesn’t say anything. Sebastian just groans.

“Are we nearly there yet?” Sebastian asks, swinging a little on the arm holding him out of boredom.

“Nearly where?” the monster that isn’t really a monster says.

Sebastian jumps. He hadn’t really expected the monster that isn’t really a monster to reply.

“To where you’re taking me,” Sebastian says, a little confused.

“I’m not taking you anywhere,” the monster that isn’t really a monster says, and that just confuses Sebastian even more. “We’re not going anywhere. I need to talk to you.”

“What about?” Sebastian asks. The monster that isn’t really a monster says that a lot but Sebastian doesn’t think the monster has ever really _said_ anything. Other than that his family isn’t a real family, but Sebastian knows that’s a lie.

“You have to flee,” the monster that isn’t really a monster says. “You are not safe here.”

“ _I_ don’t even know where I am,” Sebastian complains, kicking the floor.

“You are not safe with Ferrari,” the monster that isn’t really a monster says, coming to a stop. He crouches down in front of Sebastian, but the child can’t make out any of his facial features. It’s all just white noise. “You and your brother have to leave. They are bad people, Sebastian, and you have to leave.”

“You’re trying to say that we’re not a family, but we are too,” Sebastian snaps, crossing his arms and sticking out his bottom lip.

“Sebastian, you do not remember what they are really like,” the monster that isn’t really a monster says. “They have done something to you so that you do not remember. You have to leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sebastian snaps, taking a step back from the monster that isn’t really a monster. “They’re my family and I love them and they love me. Leave me alone.”

“If I had left you alone before you would have been hurt,” the monster that isn’t really a monster says. It brushes a hand against Sebastian’s cheek and the child steps back again.

“Go away!” Sebastian snaps. “Leave me alone and go away!”

“Sebastian? Sebastian wake up!”

Sebastian starts awake, surprised to find Kimi’s face hovering over his. The older boy looks worried for a second, before relief floods his face and he pulls away to let his little brother sit up. Sebastian looks around, but he doesn’t recognise where he is. It’s outside somewhere. There’s grass. It’s a field, but not the field he left Kimi sleeping in.

“Are you ok?” Kimi asks, relief turning to concern again when Sebastian just looks confused.

The German nods slowly, trying to figure out what happened, where he is and where the monster that isn’t really a monster is. There’s nobody else in sight.

“How did you get all the way out here?” Kimi asks, standing and helping Sebastian back onto his feet.

Sebastian shrugs, still a little confused. He can see the village in the distance and realises now he’s probably on the other side of it to where he and the monster that isn’t really a monster left Kimi. It doesn’t make any sense.

“Let’s get you inside,” Kimi says. “Britta will be worried sick.”

 

Jean-Eric’s lying on the floor with his ear pressed flat against the concrete and tears rolling sideways over his nose. He can hear people walking up and down the corridor and past his room and now he knows most of the frequent visitor’s steps. He can tell the difference between Maurizio or one of the scientists, or the man with the floppy white hair, or the other little boy that Jean-Eric has seen a few times. He doesn’t know everybody, but he does his best.

His fingers curl into the bottom of his jacket, nothing else to clutch at, and a fresh wave of tears starts. He wants Dan’s fur against his cheek and he wants something to hold onto and he wants Dan – the _real_ Dan – here and for his brother to put his arm around him and make everything ok again. He hasn’t seen Dan in _so long_ and it isn’t _fair_.

Another set of footsteps go past, but Jean-Eric knows it isn’t Maurizio. He doesn’t move from the floor, listening to the steps get quieter and quieter until there’s silence again. He’s waiting for Maurizio to come back with Dan. He has to come back with Dan.

Jean-Eric hates it here, but he doesn’t have a choice. He _wants_ to tell Susie and Scott and the other kids at the assessment but he can’t get the words to work inside his head or out of it and he doesn’t like it. It makes him feel funny. They _do_ something to him, they have to do something to him, and then nothing works like it should do. He wants someone to figure out what’s going on and that’s why he needs Dan. Dan doesn’t reply anymore, not like he used to, but Jean-Eric hopes that his brother can still hear him. And then he can come up with a rescue plan and they can run away. It’s the only way he can come up with to get out of here.

Jean-Eric jumps up when he hears footsteps he recognises as Maurizio’s, holding his breath and waiting for him to come in. He shuffles back a little when the footsteps stop outside the door, fingers curling even tighter in the hem of his jumper.

“Jean-Eric,” Maurizio says when he comes in, shutting the door behind him. Jean-Eric leans over, trying to spot Dan, but it doesn’t look like Maurizio has him. “What’s the matter?”

_Where’s Dan? Give him back._

“Dan?” Maurizio asks, a little confused, before he realises what Jean-Eric is talking about and laughs. “You mean the ratty little teddy? That’s gone. You don’t need rubbish like that here, do you Jean-Eric?”

Jean-Eric shakes his head, his eyes wide.

_He can’t be gone. He’s not rubbish. He’s mine and you can’t throw him away._

Maurizio just laughs. “It’s just a toy, Jean-Eric, and now it’s gone. Maybe now you’ll focus on your therapy.”

_No! I do not want therapy. I want Dan back. You can’t take him away. It’s not fair. Go and get him and give him back. Please give him back!_

Fat tears roll down Jean-Eric’s face, but Maurizio doesn’t seem to be bothered by them. The adult rolls his eyes and folds his arms, waiting for Jean-Eric to calm down.

_Please give him back._

“I do not know if I am going to be able to do that, Jean-Eric,” Maurizio says. “But if you come and complete your therapy I will see if I can get someone to go and see if the teddy has not been destroyed. But I have to make sure you get your therapy first.”

_I don’t like therapy. It hurts._

“It doesn’t hurt,” Maurizio says. “You just imagine it.”

_It does hurt._

“I do not have time for this,” Maurizio snaps. “If you would like your stupid teddy back, you are going to have to come to your therapy right now.”

Jean-Eric bites his lip, trying to stop himself crying. He doesn’t have much of a choice. He needs Dan. He promised he wouldn’t lose the toy. He nods and takes a nervous step towards Maurizio. The Italian grins.


	17. Heading to the Assessment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How can I say I try to stick to canon when I write about kids with super powers? I do. I mean, I try to follow real life events as closely as possible. When a driver moves to somewhere, I try to follow it the best I can. When events happen in the F1 world, like Nando's accident in testing, I try to fit it in.  
> I don't know if I really have to say this, but I won't be following canon when it comes to Jules. Spoiler, I guess, but I just want a happy ending.  
> I know some people were uncomfortable with Jules in this as it was. I don't think there are any chapters where he's "in" it as much as he was in the chapter with Fernando before (actually, I think there might be one right near the end). Anything that he is in will get a warning at the end of the chapter before and the start of the chapter and I'll have a summary of important events in the chapter afterwards for people who don't want to read it but still want to follow the story. If anybody wants anything else about that, just comment or send me a message on tumblr and try to follow it.  
> Then there's Adrian. Adrian's suffering with what I guess is PTSD. I've done a bit of research and tried to get an idea but if anybody thinks I'm doing anything in that "wrong" or running with cliché's let me know. Of course, there will still be references to the crash in chapters that deal with Adrian and what he's going through (or the Reversal of Power as it is in this world). I don't think it's anything to vivid or graphic but, again, I'll put in a warning at the beginning of those chapters (this chapter has about a line of flash back I think but that's it) so you guys know.  
> RIP Jules. You will be missed.

Kimi’s never been particularly fond of assessments, standing in a field in front of everyone and jumping through hoops, but now he’s decided he hates them. And that is in no small way Sebastian’s fault. The child is still as excited as ever when it comes to assessments and, whilst Kimi had found it pretty adorable at first, now it’s just annoying. Sebastian still hasn’t stopped waking Kimi up at half six in the morning, no matter how much his brother grumbles about it. The Finn does his best to prevent the occurrence, locking his door before he goes to sleep and smothering himself in blankets no matter how warm it is, because _yes_ , he loves his brother, but not the hyperactive child that always manages to get into his room and bounce himself silly on Kimi’s bed at half six in the morning.

“Britta’s making pancakes,” Sebastian says once he’s sure Kimi is awake, sitting back with a grin on his face, proud of himself. The strange occurrence that had happened the other day is now gone from Sebastian’s mind, and Kimi isn’t sure if he likes that or not. “What are you having on yours?”

Kimi groans but follows Sebastian out of the room, holding onto his wrist so he doesn’t “zip” away. Sebastian’s bouncing so much as they go down the stairs that Kimi’s sure his arm is going to pop out of his socket if his brother doesn’t stop soon.

Maurizio’s sat in the living room, watching the news. When Kimi comes into the room he glances up at the Finn and smiles, but doesn’t say a word. Kimi feels his stomach roll. It’s going to be a long day.

 

Adrian sits on the bed in the room that’s supposed to be his, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. He’s already ready to go out. They’ve got an assessment to go to and if they don’t leave soon, they’re going to be late, but Adrian can’t move. He’s going to do awfully, he knows he is. And he doesn’t think he wants to see Felipe and Marcus, either. He’s already hurt them enough.

“Ready to go?” Frank asks, appearing beside Adrian on his bed. The teenager doesn’t even flinch anymore.

Adrian nods and sighs, trying to will himself to stand, but he just can’t do it.

“It’ll be alright,” Frank says.

Adrian nods again. He knows that. He’s gone to enough assessments to know that what happen in the last assessment probably isn’t going to happen again. But this _isn’t about that_. This isn’t about Jules and Adrian just wishes people wouldn’t always bring it up.

“Shall we get going then?” Frank asks. “I think everyone’s waiting for you.”

Adrian nods a third time and he’s beginning to feel a little like a nodding dog or something, but he can’t help it. There’s nothing he can think of to say, but he doesn’t want to seem rude. He still doesn’t stand though. He thinks he’s probably going to need some help with that.

“We can stay here, if you like,” Frank suggests when Adrian doesn’t move. “If you’re not feeling up to it. I know some people prefer to not go to assessments for a while after seeing a reversal of power.”

“I want to go,” Adrian says. He _needs_ to go. He hasn’t been doing too badly in tutoring and he wants to show Monisha and Felipe and Marcus that he’s ok and he can go back to live with them. He has to go to the assessments. He isn’t going to let something like that get to him.

But he still can’t move.

“I think it might be best if you stay here,” Frank says, gently.

“I want to _go_ ,” Adrian says, standing. He marches out of the room and down the stairs before Frank can stop him. The old man sits on the bed for a couple of seconds, smiling to himself, before disappearing.

 

Felipe and Valtteri sit together on the bus to the assessment, watching Adrian closely. They still haven’t come up with any kind of plan, beyond telling Rob and Claire about the nightmares, but Valtteri is still waiting for the “right moment” for that. There hasn’t been much chance to catch the two of them together and even when Valtteri does, it’s clear there’s an atmosphere in the room which does not require added problems, so the Finn just leaves them to it.

“If we have gone down since the last assessment then we have to tell Rob and Claire,” Felipe says, quietly. “We do not have any choice. He will make us lose control of our powers altogether if we do not stop him soon and we cannot let that happen.”

He feels like he’s only just got control of his powers back, and he isn’t going to let Adrian ruin that.

The German sits a little closer to the front of the bus, Frank beside him. He’s shaking again and his heart feels like it’s stuck in his throat, thumping loud enough for everyone in the bus to hear. He needs to get out of here. He can’t do this and he shouldn’t have let Frank trick him into doing this. He can’t-.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Frank says, gently. “Calm down. It’s going to be ok.”

Adrian bites his lip and shakes his head. He wants to go home. He just wants to go back to Monisha and Felipe and Marcus and he wants to be with his family and he wants none of the last few months to have happened and he can’t go to another assessment. Not now.

“We can go back, if you like,” Frank says, gently, as if reading his mind. “It’s up to you. I don’t mind.”

“Please?” Adrian whispers.

“Alright,” Frank says, smiling gently. “Let me just tell Claire where we’re going so she doesn’t worry.”

Adrian closes his eyes as Frank disappears again. He’s holding onto the bottom of the bus seat and trying to stop himself from shaking, but it doesn’t work. With his eyes closed, the memories of the last assessment are even clearer and Adrian’s almost sure he can feel the ran on his face and he can hear the squelching of the mud beneath his feet and when Frank places a hand on his shoulder he almost jumps out of his skin.

“It’s ok,” Frank says in the same gentle tone, but even Adrian can see the concern in his eyes. “We’ll get you home now, alright?”

Frank takes hold of Adrian’s hand, rubbing his thumb against the teenager’s hand. The world disappears for a moment before the Williams’ living room appears before his eyes. Adrian feels as if he’s been winded, wobbling where he stands before falling back onto the sofa.

“Are you alright?” Frank asks. “Do you need anything?”

Adrian shakes his head and closes his eyes again, trying to stop himself from crying or throwing up.

 _Rain_ _splatters_ _against_ _his_ _friend’s_ _face_ _but_ _he_ _still_ _grins_ _at_ _Adrian_ , _accepting_ _the_ _German’s_ _challenge_...

“Adrian?” Frank says, forcing the teenager to open his eyes again. “Shall we have a cup of tea?”

 

Fernando had thought he was going to be ok, but now assessment day has come he’s suddenly very nervous. It’s only a short drive to the assessment field and he watches from the living room window as Jenson and Kevin wait outside for Ron to get ready. He’d thought Jenson would have spoken to him by now. Andrea has noticed the change in mood. Fernando had thought Jenson might have too, and decided to investigate, but there’s been nothing. Fernando doesn’t want to push Jenson, not if he’s still uncomfortable around Fernando. Fernando knows if Jenson knew how good his powers could be, Jenson would want to be his brother again, but he just doesn’t know how to tell him.

“Come on, Kev, I know you can jump higher than that!” Jenson says with a grin, holding his hand up a little higher than his little brother can reach so Kevin can jump to give him a high five.

Kevin grins and jumps as hard as he can to try to swipe Jenson’s hand, but misses, smacking his older brother in the face instead.

“Ow!”

“Sorry Jenshon!” Kevin says, quickly, trying to hold back laughter.

“It’s alright,” Jenson says, still holding his nose where Kevin hit it. Really, he should have expected something like that to happen. “No harm done.”

Kevin grins at his older brother when Jenson pulls his hand away, the Brit’s face still a little red. “Can we play again?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, mate,” Jenson says, ruffling Kevin’s hair and getting a pout from the younger boy that makes him laugh.

“I’m bored,” Kevin says.

“Well, Ron won’t be long now, he’s just on the phone,” Jenson says, though he can’t think who Ron would need to be on the phone to now. “When he’s finished we can get going.”

“Is Um-Nando coming?” Kevin asks, realising his other brother isn’t stood out here waiting.

“Yeah,” Jenson says, glancing over to where he knows Fernando is watching them from. “Yeah, he is. But remember, Fernando might not be… Fernando might not want to talk lots, yeah? So if he asks you to stop then it would be really nice for you to stop.”

“I think he will want to talk lots,” Kevin says, grinning. He knows his other brother wants them all to be friends again, but he doesn’t know why the Spaniard won’t just _do_ it.

“Are you ready to go?” Ron asks Fernando, putting the phone away.

Fernando sighs and nods. He doesn’t know why Andrea can’t just bring him to the assessment, but he’s given up arguing about it. They never listen to him.

Fernando follows Ron out of the house, waiting for Ron to lock the door before following him again to the car. He looks over at Jenson and smiles weakly at his older brother. Jenson offers him the same smile back.

“Will you sit in the back with me, Um-Nando?” Kevin asks, suddenly, holding onto Fernando’s hand.

“Kevin, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Jenson says, quickly. They’ve managed to get Fernando out of his room and Jenson doesn’t want him being exposed to too much too quickly and being driven back there.

“Please,” Kevin says, looking up to Fernando.

Fernando’s smile grows a little and he takes his hand away from Kevin’s to run it through his younger brother’s hair.

“Sure.”

 

Rob can see how nervous Claire is as they approach the usual line for registering, but he doesn’t really know what to do about it. Getting Claire to speak about how she’s feeling is like trying to get blood from a stone and Rob doesn’t know where he stands with her anymore. She’s been cold with him since her… confession? Rob isn’t entirely sure what the little breakdown can be considered. But he know it was important, and he needs to get Claire to talk to him about it again.

At least Adrian isn’t here, Rob thinks as they shuffle closer to the desk. He’d guessed the day before that the teenager wouldn’t be ready for another assessment so soon, no matter how much Adrian tried to convince them otherwise. It’s one less thing for Claire to worry about.

Claire smiles to the woman registering as she goes through the process and Rob leaves her to it, looking down at the kids. Susie is attempting to catch Toto’s attention, the boy a little further behind them, whilst Felipe and Valtteri are staring at the floor and kicking their shoes against the floor.

“You two alright?” Rob asks, making Valtteri jump a little.

Felipe nods. “Fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rob asks, crouching down a little to speak to them.

“Yes,” Felipe insists.

“We’re just…” Valtteri glances over at his brother. Felipe shoots him a glare because the more times they pester Rob about this without him changing his mind, the longer it’s going to take to get anything done, but Valtteri’s already started now. “Worried,” he finishes.

“Worried?” Rob asks. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, boys. All that matters in the assessment is that you’re going forwards, remember? Nobody else matters to us.”

“Yes, but what if we don’t go forwards?” Felipe asks. “What if we go backwards?”

“Why would you go backwards?” Rob asks, smiling and trying to settle the two teenagers, but it doesn’t work.

Felipe shrugs.

“Just feel a bit funny,” Valtteri mumbles.

“You won’t have gone backwards,” Rob says, placing one hand on Felipe’s shoulder and the other on Valtteri’s. “I know it’s been a tough few weeks since Adrian arrived, but everything is going to be fine.”

Felipe rolls his eyes but nods. It’s not as if they expected anything else from Rob anyway.


	18. The Healed and the Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Assessments were introduced fairly recently, to try to encourage children to gain control over their powers. Whilst some power possessors would take pride in having neat and tidy powers before hand, others wouldn't, either trying to ignore the fact their powers existed or not realising they were able to gain any control of them. Assessments brought a kind of order to the power possessing world, and changes in the behaviour of children with powers changed a lot of "normal" people's perceptions of them. They were no longer deadly monsters with no desire to control their unusual qualities. In some ways, the assessments have been good for the power possessing world. In others... not so much...

Carmen won’t stop bouncing and even Pastor can’t stop himself smiling at that. She runs off ahead after they’ve registered, stopping in the middle of the field when she realises she doesn’t know where she’s going. There are a few “spectators” who have come to show support to the children and Carmen grins when she spots a couple near the front. She waves enthusiastically and the couple wave back.

“Who are they?” Pastor asks Romain, looking over to the couple.

Romain shrugs. “Why don’t you ask her, seeing as you are so close?”

Romain hasn’t been too happy about how close Carmen and Pastor have been over the past few weeks. “Close” isn’t really the right word, but they’ve been getting along, and Romain has been getting a little jealous over it. _He_ ’s always been the favourite one of his siblings, but he knows Carmen prefers Pastor to him.

“We are not _close_ ,” Pastor says, glaring at Romain.

“Sure,” the French boy says.

Pastor rolls his eyes and hurries to where Carmen is stood, staring at everything with a grin on her face.

“We come and sit over here,” Pastor says, putting an arm over his little sister’s shoulders and leading her over the gazebo where Gerhard is waiting for them. “Who are the people you were waving to?”

“My parents,” Carmen says. “They wanted to see my first assessment.”

She grins, proud that her parents have come to see her. Now she just has to make _them_ proud.

Pastor gulps and glances back at the little crowd. He knows some of the biological families come to support their children, but he hasn’t seen any in a while. It makes him a little nervous, and that strange feeling twitches inside him again, the same feeling he’d felt when Carmen had let him listen to the beach. He doesn’t know what it is, but he knows he doesn’t like it.

“This is going to be brilliant,” Carmen says.

“Now Carmen,” Gerhard says, gently, placing a hand on the little girl’s shoulder to stop her bouncing so much. “You must remember, this is only your first assessment. So you might not do so well, alright. Don’t be too disappointed in yourself. Nobody’s good in their first assessment.”

“But I’m going to do the best that I can do,” Carmen says, cheerfully. She hops onto one of the chairs and pats the chair next to her, grinning up at Pastor. Gerhard sighs and looks up to the sky, just wishing they could all go one assessment without some kind of fight. But then Pastor smiles back at Carmen and sits in the space she’s offered, and Gerhard just left confused.

“What happens if you do alright in this?” Lewis asks, his voice as low as he can get it. They’re stood a couple of steps behind Toto, but Lewis knows Nico doesn’t trust that distance. And he also knows his brother isn’t going to talk about his plans if he thinks there’s a chance Toto might hear him.

“What do you mean?” Nico asks, confused.

“If you do alright in the assessment?” Lewis asks. He and Nico have been finishing top in the assessments for months now. That has to _mean_ something to his brother. They wouldn’t be doing so well if they weren’t family.

Nico shrugs. He doesn’t really have an answer for that.

“It isn’t going to make me stay, Lewis,” he says.

The meeting with the woman from the agency isn’t for another couple of days. Nico had tried to get one sooner, so he wouldn’t have to suffer through another assessment where all Toto cared about was how well Lewis was doing, but there hadn’t been any appointment slots available. He feels like things have been getting better between himself and Lewis since his brother found out about his plan, but Nico doesn’t trust that. He needs to get away from here.

“But it means we’re supposed to be together, right?” Lewis points out.

“Or it means I’ve got decent control of my powers despite you and Toto and Niki,” Nico hisses.

“Harsh,” Lewis mutters.

Nico just rolls his eyes. He really can’t be bothered with today. The sooner this is all over and he has his appointment with the woman from the agency, the better.

It’s not long until they’re registered and Toto is leading them over to the little gazebo they’re usually sat at. Lewis watches as Nico stares into space. He still hasn’t come up with a way to convince his brother that he doesn’t need to leave. He’s already thought about telling Niki and Toto, but Niki will just say he’ll grow out of it when he finds something more interesting to do, and Lewis knows Toto’s already doing his best to try to keep the four of them together. If anybody’s going to convince Nico, it’s going to be him. He just doesn’t know how.

Maybe the appointment with the woman from the agency won’t go quite how Nico planned it. Lewis doesn’t think that’s very likely, but he has to hope. And come up with another plan if that doesn’t work…

 

“It’s a girl,” Claire says.

“Huh?”

“It’s a girl,” Claire says again, still staring over at the Lotus family. “The new Lotus child. It’s a girl.”

It’s very definitely a girl, with cute little pig tails and an excited smile, dressed up in her best summer dress for her first assessment.

Rob peers over to the Lotus gazebo and nods. “So it is.”

Claire shoots Rob a look he doesn’t think he entirely deserves, but says nothing. Rob just sighs, following Claire when she marches off after the boys. They still need to talk, but Rob doesn’t think he’s going to get the chance to get Claire alone today. As soon as they’re home she’s going to be fussing over Adrian – not that Rob thinks the German will want the fuss – and Claire’s got too much to worry about here to think about herself.

“What’s the matter?” Rob asks, feeling like he’s definitely missing something. “What’s wrong with the girl?”

He looks back over to the Lotus family, and the little girl sat beside Pastor, but he can’t think of any reason for Claire to be upset by it. She’s got the same look on her face when she noticed the girls at the other assessment, though.

“Nothing,” Claire says, thoughtfully. “But remind me to go and speak to Gerhard later.”

 

The car journey wasn’t as bad as Fernando had expected it to be. Kevin had chatted most of the journey, dragging Fernando into conversations about cartoons as often as he could. Fernando had been quiet most of the journey, not entirely sure what to say most of the time.

Now he follows Ron to their spot in the field, waiting nervously for the assessment to begin. There’s definitely an atmosphere about now. It feels weird being back here, after everything that had happened at the last assessment, and Fernando’s got the feeling he isn’t the only one who feels that way.

“Are you alright?” Jenson asks, quietly, dropping back to walk with his brother.

Fernando gulps and nods, pretending to cough so he can wipe his eyes.

“Fernando,” Jenson says with a sigh. He’s not fooling anybody. Jenson puts his arm around his younger brother, not caring if Fernando wants it or not because he clearly _needs_ it. “You know you can talk to me, right?”

“Huh?”

“Like, about anything,” Jenson tries to explain. “I don’t really know if I can help, but I’ll listen, if you need someone to talk to.”

“You… you would do that?” Fernando asks, stopping and staring at Jenson.

“Of course I would,” Jenson says with a small laugh. “You’re my brother and I want to help. But only if you want me to. You don’t need to if you don’t want to.”

“You don’t hate me?” Fernando asks.

“What? Of course I don’t…” It suddenly hits Jenson what the problem is. “Oh Fernando.”

Before Fernando can do anything to stop him, Jenson wraps his arms around Fernando, squeezing his brother in a bear hug.

“Why would you think I hate you?” Jenson says when he finally lets him go.

Fernando’s bottom lip is wobbling but he’s determined not to cry. He’s better than that.

“Because of my powers,” he says. “Because I hurt you and I thought you were scared I was going to hurt you again but I’m not. We have found someone who is going to help me and I am not going to hurt you, Jenson, or Kevin.”

“Of course I never thought that,” Jenson says, putting his arm over his little brother’s shoulder again and leading him to the gazebo where Ron and Kevin are watching him from.

“They why weren’t you talking to me?” Fernando asks. Could he really have been being stupid all this time?

“Because… well because I thought you wanted your own space,” Jenson says, realising now how stupid that was. “I didn’t think you wanted to be around us, so I was just leaving you to figure it out.”

“You thought I was pushing you away?” Fernando says quietly. When he thinks about it, that does make sense.

“Yeah.”

“And I thought _you_ were pushing _me_ away,” Fernando says, quietly.

“What a pair of idiots we are,” Jenson says with a grin. It was all just a misunderstanding. One great big misunderstanding. He can’t help but laugh, making Fernando laugh too.

“Does this mean Um-Nando wants to be our friend again?” Kevin asks Ron quietly.

“I think it does,” Ron says.

 

Adrian sits in silence, staring at the cup of tea Frank has given him. He knows Frank’s watching him, trying to figure out what to say like they all do. There’s nothing he can say, and Adrian can’t be bothered to humour him. Not today.

“You know, it’s ok to not be able to go back to normal straight away,” Frank says. “You’re not the first person to witness a reversal of powers, Adrian, and, sadly, you probably won’t be the last. And a lot of people struggling with coping afterwards. I’m not saying how your feeling isn’t bad. I know it’s bad. But it’s normal as well.”

“You don’t know how I’m feeling,” Adrian mutters.

“Don’t I?” Frank says. He shakes his head. “No, I probably don’t know exactly how you’re feeling. Because these things affect everyone differently, but I’ve seen a reversal of power, Adrian, and not everybody is as lucky as Jules.”

Adrian looks up from his tea to Frank. The old man is still smiling weakly, but there’s something different about the smile. It settles Adrian a little, even though he doesn’t _want_ to be settled, not really. Or, he _does_ , but… It’s confusing.

“This isn’t just about Jules,” he mutters in the end, looking back down at his tea and wishing he could somehow melt into it. Turn into tea and stop having to exist.

“Yes, you did say that,” Frank says, leaning forward a little. If he can just get Adrian to talk… “What else is this about then?”

Adrian glances up at Frank again, face automatically contorting into a glare. He doesn’t trust him, and he doesn’t want to be tricked into doing something he doesn’t want to do again. But he isn’t entirely sure he doesn’t want to talk either.

“I don’t have a family,” Adrian says quietly.

“Of course you have a family,” Frank says. “When you get your powers sorted out-.”

Adrian shakes his head. “I don’t,” he says. “I… I thought I had a connection with Monisha and Guido. But then Guido left. He grew up and moved out and then there were Felipe and Marcus and I don’t have a connection with them. I want to. I _really_ want to. But I just don’t. And then Monisha said that she isn’t sure she has a connection with me anymore and I don’t think so either but if I don’t then where am I supposed to go? I don’t know where Guido is and I don’t have any other family left anymore. We were looking at places for me to go, before Jules, but there was never a connection. And then Jules happened and I hurt Felipe and Marcus and Monisha wanted me out. So even if I do get my powers back under control, I don’t have anywhere to go.”

He looks over at Frank again, trying to work out what the old man is thinking, but Frank has disappeared. He reappears at Adrian’s side again, putting an arm around the teenager. He sighs a little, not at Adrian, but at the mess the teenager has been put in.

“It’s ok,” he says, gently. “If you want, we’ll find somewhere. We’ll find your family. There’s one out there, we just have to figure out where it is.”

“But what if there isn’t one?” Adrian asks.

“There will be,” Frank says. “You don’t need to worry about that. All you need to worry about right now is getting your powers back under control. And I can think of someone who might be able to help you with that.”

“Who?” Adrian asks.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Frank says, patting Adrian’s arm. “Now drink your tea before it gets cold.”


	19. Assessments Part Three

“How have they been?” Susie asks, practically sitting on the same chair as Toto as they watch Lewis make his way back over to them with his tutor.

“Alright,” Toto says. They haven’t been sat in the same room doing secret things on the laptop for a while, and they haven’t been out together alone since the time Susie and Toto had been watching the horror film, either, but they haven’t been at each other’s throats. Toto guesses that’s a good thing, but he can’t be sure.

“What was that about?” Lewis’ tutor exclaims as he makes his way back. Lewis has almost perfect control of his powers, everyone knows it, and little slip ups like that don’t happen to him.

“Sorry,” Lewis mutters, but he doesn’t seem very apologetic. He’s trying to look sorry for himself, because he really shouldn’t have been making stupid little mistakes like that now, but he can’t swallow the small smile on his face.

He gives Nico a little thumbs up as the assessors come over and ask for the German. Nico smiles weakly back as he passes, but it’s clear it’s not real.

“Lewis?” Niki asks, leaning over to the Brit before Lewis can stick his head phones back over his ears. “What happened?”

“Just a little slip up,” Lewis says with a shrug, taking his iPod out to select a song.

“A little slip up?” Niki asks, turning to the tutor, but he has as little idea as to what went on as Niki does.

Nico knows though, and he isn’t going to play along. He doesn’t need any “accidental” screw ups to help him feel good about himself, and he isn’t going to pretend he does to let Lewis give himself a pat on the back either.

“I was thinking,” Susie says, quietly. “About rescuing Jean-Eric.”

“Rescuing?” Toto says. “Why does he need rescuing?”

“I told you how he was at the assessment,” Susie says. It wasn’t right and she doesn’t like it. There’s something going on there and somebody needs to help him. He’s just a kid, and Susie hates to imagine him going through anything like Felipe went through. She still has the memories rattling inside her head, occasionally creeping into her dreams and making her lie awake for hours. She can’t sit back and let Jean-Eric go through that.

“Alright,” Toto says. He’ll go along with it for now, but he’s not letting her get into any trouble. “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Susie says. She can try talking to Claire and Rob again. Now isn’t exactly a good time, she can tell, but she doesn’t really care. She isn’t going to let their screwed up love life ruin her chances of saving Jean-Eric.

She just doesn’t know how much help they will be, though.

Nico comes back over after his assessment with a scowl on his face which is definitely not supposed to be there. Lewis sits up, taking off his headphones as his brother comes closer.

“What’s wrong?” he asks when Nico is close enough so he doesn’t have to shout.

“Just a little slip up,” Nico’s tutor says, patting Nico on the back. “Nothing to worry about. You’ll get it next time.”

“A slip up?” Lewis asks as Nico sits down beside him.

“I do not need you to screw up on purpose to give me a chance,” Nico says. “I’m carrying on with the plan and nothing you do is going to convince me to change my mind.”

 

Claire’s gone over to speak to Gerhard, leaving Rob alone with the boys again. Valtteri has his head stuck in a book and Felipe has apparently found something on the ground very interesting to stare at.

“Are you two still worried?” Rob asks, trying to break the silence.

“Am always worried,” Felipe says, not looking up from the floor. The more he thinks about it, the more likely it is that they’re going to go backwards. They’ve not had one decent night’s sleep since Adrian arrived and that can’t have helped.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Rob says, gently. “Boys? Look at me, guys.”

Felipe rolls his eyes, but does as Rob asks him to and looks up from the grass. It takes a little more prodding to get Valtteri to look up from the book, but he eventually does and Rob grins at the two of them.

“What’s the matter?” he asks. “What’s got you thinking you’re going to go backwards?”

Felipe and Valtteri share that same nervous glance as before.

“Come on, guys,” Rob says, gently. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Adrian,” Felipe says. And he _knows_ Rob isn’t going to listen to him, like he didn’t listen to him last time, so he has no idea why he says it.

Rob sighs. “I know you guys aren’t exactly happy he’s with us,” Rob says. “But he’s no where else to go.”

“I do not care,” Felipe says. “Is hurting us. Is making Valtteri have his dreams again.”

Valtteri glares at Felipe and Felipe squeezes his hand in way of an apology. He hadn’t meant for that to slip out.

“Your dreams?” Rob says, his focus now solely on Valtteri. “Since when?”

“Not long after he arrived,” Valtteri mumbles, not looking at Rob. He knows the Brit needs to know what’s going on. If he wants anything to change, then Rob and Claire need to know what’s going on with him. But he just doesn’t want to talk about it and he hates Felipe for making him.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Rob asks, gently.

“Because we did not think you would do anything,” Valtteri says. “It is Adrian doing it.”

“We don’t know that,” Rob says.

“We do!” Felipe cries. “He has the same powers as Pastor and Kimi, doesn’t he? And what is happening is the same as when Pastor or Kimi was about. Does not take a genius to figure out that this is his fault, Rob.”

“Alright, calm down,” Rob says. He glances over to where Claire is still talking to Gerhard. He doesn’t want to give her another thing to worry about. Not today anyway. “Even if this is Adrian’s fault, I’m sure he doesn’t mean to. You know he’s having trouble controlling his powers at the moment and you know why.”

“Do not care if he meant to or not,” Felipe says. “Just do not want what happened before to happen again.”

“And it won’t,” Rob says. “Look guys, I know it is hard…”

“But you do not know,” Felipe cries. “Are not there when Valtteri wakes up every night thinking he is drowning because Adrian is messing with his head.”

“Felipe, just leave it,” Valtteri mumbles, blushing a little. He doesn’t need the entire field to know what’s going on.

“I know it’s hard,” Rob says again, sterner this time. “But Adrian’s powers are getting better every day, aren’t they. We’ll work on it, ok. I’ll let the tutor know this is affecting you, Valtteri, and we’ll come up with a way of stopping him. You managed to stop me, haven’t you?”

“It’s… never mind,” Valtteri says, waving away the thought. He can’t really be bothered to explain how it’s different.

“We’ll sort it, alright?” Rob says, smiling when Valtteri nods. Felipe isn’t so impressed with the answer, but he doesn’t say anything else on the matter. If they can’t trust Rob and Claire to look after them, they’ll do it themselves.

 

Ron smiles to himself as he watches Fernando and Jenson chat away. He doesn’t know what exactly has changed and he doesn’t care. Fernando’s fine. Maybe the trip to the hospital had worked even better than Ron thought it did. It doesn’t really matter _why_ , though. All that matters is that his family is finally getting back on track.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Jenson admits. “After what happened before you were so quiet and I thought you’d come to me if you wanted to talk, so I just left you to it.”

He knows _now_ that that wasn’t the right thing to do.

“I didn’t think… after what I did…”

“You saved me, Fernando, remember?” Jenson says, softly.

“Yeah, but before,” Fernando says. When he shuts his eyes, he’s there again, and he has to wriggle his fingers just to remind himself he has control of his body still. “I hurt you. I’m sorry.”

“That weren’t your fault,” Jenson says. “If it were, I’d have knocked your lights out by now, wouldn’t I?”

He grins, gently nudging Fernando and making his brother smile.

When the assessors come over, disturbing the conversation, it’s Fernando who stands first. Andrea follows behind him, smiling happily to himself. He knows Fernando’s only just started talking to Jenson again, but even in this short amount of time, it’s likely to boosted his mentality, if not his control on his powers.

The walk to the middle of the field seems to take forever, and Fernando’s smile get a little smaller with every step he takes. Everything around him gets quieter and quieter until, if he shuts his eyes, he can forget there’s anyone else there at all. He glances back at Jenson, who’s watching him and gives him a thumbs up. Fernando weakly mirrors the gesture.

“Come on then,” the assessor says, holding out the device used to measure the non-phys power.

Andrea knows there’s something wrong before Fernando even places his hands on the device. The teenager’s hand goes stiff, hovering over the device, and his eyes go blank.

“Fernando?”

Fernando sways a little before his body completely gives way and he falls to the floor.

“Fernando!”


	20. Just a Glitch

_It’s just a glitch. It’s just a glitch. It’s just a glitch._

Andrea keeps telling himself that as Ron drives him and the boys to the hospital, but it doesn’t help. He hadn’t woken up. He hadn’t woken up after a couple of minutes, like they usually do, and now it doesn’t matter if it’s just a glitch or not. Because there has to be someone that makes the “almost always ok” statistic “almost always”.

 _It’s just a glitch_.

“Is Um-Nando going to be ok?” Kevin asks. He’s holding onto the bottom of his car seat because he’s sure the car isn’t allowed to go this fast.

“Yeah,” Jenson says, gently, when nobody else answers. He can’t see Ron’s face but Jenson knows he’s worried. They all are. “Yeah, he’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” Kevin says, slowly, but Jenson can tell he doesn’t believe it. How can he believe it when the adults are acting like _this_?

Kevin turns to peer out of the window, the road outside whizzing past so fast it makes his head spin…

 

When they arrive at the almost empty hospital car park, Ron and Andrea are out of the car and rushing inside before Jenson has even finished unbuckling Kevin’s seat belt. Jenson rolls his eyes and helps his youngest brother out of the car. He’s worried. _Of course_ he’s worried. He’s seen how bad glitches can be, especially when the power possessor doesn’t restart automatically, and it’s his _brother_. His brother who he’s been ignoring for weeks and making to feel unwanted. He wants to be in there as soon as possible too, but that isn’t going to help Fernando. And Ron has a habit of forgetting he has three sons to look after…

“You’re sure Um-Nando is going to be ok?” Kevin asks, holding onto Jenson’s hand as they cross the car park.

“Of course he is,” Jenson says with a weak smile as they cross the car park.

“What happened?” Kevin asks. “Is he going to be in hospital for ages, like Jules?”

“No,” Jenson says. “No, this is different to Jules. It’s just a glitch.”

“Oh,” Kevin says. He doesn’t know what a glitch is, but it doesn’t sound that bad. But then it _does_ sound like ‘witch’, so maybe it is pretty bad.

“It’s ok," a nurse is telling Ron and Andrea when Jenson and Kevin make it inside. “Fernando is awake and talking. We’re just running some scans to make sure everything’s working ok.”

“He’s ok?” Ron says, not quite believing it was that simple.

“It looks like he’s ok, yes,” the nurse says. “Some parts of his mind might take a little longer to restart than others but, basically, he’s ok.”

Andrea falls back into the chair behind him, relief flooding his face.

“If you’d all like to wait here, I can call you in when Fernando is ready for visitors,” the nurse says, smiling politely.

Ron nods, not entirely sure how to reply, and settles into the chair beside Andrea’s.

“See,” Jenson says to Kevin. “Nothing to worry about.”

 

The nurse still hasn’t come back by the time the Williams family arrive. Ron knows this kind of thing takes time. He must have seen hundreds of glitches over the years, dozens that haven’t been completely normal and have led to hospital visits. He knows what to expect.

“Is he ok?” Felipe asks, rushing over to where the McLaren family are sat in an almost empty waiting room.

“There’s nothing to worry about!” Kevin declares, looking up from where he’d playing a game on Jenson’s phone.

Ron nods and stands as the rest of the family come over. “They’re just doing scans now.”

“See?” Rob says, patting Felipe’s shoulder. “No need to rush over?”

He smiles and Felipe throws him a filthy look. How many times has Rob told him how worried he was when Felipe had been the one glitching? And now he acts as if it’s stupid to worry?

They’d had to wait until after their assessments to come and find out what had happened to Fernando. It had been clear at the assessment it had been a glitch, but Felipe had insisted on finding out exactly what had happened.

“When do you think they will be finished?” Felipe asks. He is not leaving here until he finds out how Fernando is. He knows his friend would do the same for him.

“No idea,” Jenson says, helpfully.

“Right then,” Rob says. “Why don’t you guys wait here and I’ll go and see if I can find us some grub?” He grins, hoping he can prompt the others to smile, but they all just look back at him, bored. He sighs. “Wow, Rob, that’s a wonderful idea. What would we do without you? I know right.”

The kids just look back at him with the most unimpressed expressions Rob has ever seen. He just rolls his eyes and leaves them to it.

“Hang on a second,” Andrea calls after him, standing. After sitting for so long, his legs feel funny, but he still jogs after Rob. “I’ll come with you.”

Rob nods, waiting for Andrea to catch up with him before walking again. He’s got a feeling he knows what this is about…

Claire’s watching Susie closely as she takes a seat beside Valtteri, taking out her phone to text Toto and let him know that everything’s alright. Claire’s been thinking it over since Bruno and Jean-Eric’s assessment, but she’s been trying to convince herself she’s worrying about nothing. Susie’s _fine_ , after all. But, speaking Gerhard at the assessment, Claire’s not so sure anymore. She’ll speak to Rob when she gets a chance. As much as she hates him, he’s still Susie’s parent too. They’re still family, and the family has to come first.

“Have you seen him?” Felipe asks Jenson. He _knows_ he shouldn’t be this worried. Fernando isn’t his brother and he made it perfectly clear to Felipe that he doesn’t want to be brothers. Felipe doesn’t _mind_ so much anymore. He has his family and Fernando has his. They’ve both moved on. But he still cares about the Spaniard. More than he would care to admit.

Jenson shakes his head. “They’ve just been doing the tests.”

“I hope it’s not a hard test,” Kevin says. “Um-Nando has not been very happy. But then he was happy, at the assessment. He’s our friend again. But he won’t be happy if it’s a hard test. Hard tests don’t make anybody happy.”

Felipe can’t argue with that flawless logic.

 

Rob’s waiting for Andrea to speak first. There’s a little café hidden in the depths of the hospital, and they’re both trying to work out what everybody would want to eat. Or they’re both _pretending_ to try to work it out. Rob’s watching Andrea out of the corner of his eye. He _knows_ what this is about, but he’s not sure if Andrea’s actually going to come out and say it.

“How did you know?” the Italian asks eventually.

“How did I know what?” Rob asks, as if he doesn’t know.

“How did you know…”Andrea says again, glancing over at the man he had worked with once upon a time. “There was a connection.”

He wouldn’t be surprised if Rob thinks he’s being stupid, bringing this up after Fernando’s had a glitch but, the truth is, he’s been thinking about it a while. Fernando clearly thinks there’s something there. He’s been _telling_ Andrea he thinks there’s something there, but Andrea knows he can’t really trust that. It could just be Fernando having problems with his family and wanting to be around someone he trusts. Andrea had almost convinced himself that was true, in fact. Until the glitch…

Rob sighs and pretends he hasn’t been expecting the question. Truth is, even having expected it, he doesn’t really know how to answer it.

“You just know, you know,” Rob says, unhelpfully. “Like… leaving Felipe every day after a tutoring session felt like leaving a little bit of me behind. It’s like when you leave the house and you know you’ve forgotten something, but you don’t really know what. And coming back every day… it felt like coming home. And then, when I bumped into Claire that day, it felt the same. It felt like coming home again.”

It’s the only way he can think of to explain it. It had just felt right.

Andrea nods, silently, now apparently focused again on the food choices available.

“You think you might feel a connection?” Rob prompts. He knows he would have preferred someone to talk to when he was trying to figure out how he felt about Felipe.

“Maybe,” Andrea says. All he knows is he cares about Fernando. He cares about him a lot more than any tutor he knows cares about their kid. And leaving him, when he’s upset or he’s stressed or he’s angry or he’s happy or he’s excited… leaving him kills Andrea. It feels like ripping out his heart every time. It feels like… leaving a bit of himself behind, like Rob said.

“With Fernando?” Rob asks. It’s best to clarify, after all.

Andrea nods.

“What about the others?” Rob asks. “It comes as a package deal, you know. You have a connection with one of them, you have a connection with them all. It’s how it works.”

“I don’t… know,..” Andrea says. He can’t say he’s put much thought into it. “I don’t really know them?”

“It’s alright,” Rob says. “I’d never even met Valtteri or Susie when I moved in.”

On second thoughts, that hadn’t been the safest of moves…

“Speak to Ron,” Rob advises. “If you really feel a connection, then so will he. And he’ll probably have more idea what a connection feels like than you do.”

Andrea nods. That makes sense. He’d always known he’s going to have to speak to Ron about this at some point, but he doesn’t want him to think he’s being stupid. He doesn’t want to be told he’s wrong, or make things awkward between himself and the man who is now his boss. Not whilst he can still be fired if Ron thinks he’s overstepping some line.

“It’ll be fine,” Rob says, patting Andrea on the back. “Now, what do you think your lot are going to want?”

 

Kevin bounces onto Fernando’s bed before anybody can tell him not too, but Fernando just pulls his little brother into a hug.

“Were the tests hard?” Kevin asks.

Fernando considers the question for a moment, then nods. “A little.”

“That’s not very good,” Kevin says, quietly. His brother seemed to still be happy though, so it couldn’t be that bad. Maybe Um-Nando didn’t mind hard tests.

“How are you feeling?” Ron asks. The doctors have said everything’s ok and Fernando can go home, but Ron doesn’t really trust them.

Fernando shrugs. “Alright, I guess.”

His head feels a little funny but, other than that, he feels fine. He doesn’t know what’s normal and what’s not, but the doctors all seemed to be happy with him.

“I can come home?” he asks.

“Yes, you can come home,” Ron says.

Jenson grins at him, lifting Kevin off of Fernando’s lap and sitting their little brother on the edge of the bed. Fernando smiles back. Things are going to be different at home. A good different, he’s sure.

Andrea watches from the doorway, still a little unsure whether he should be here or not. Watching on, he’s absolutely sure this is his family, and he just hopes that Ron agrees with him…


	21. Going Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look! I posted chapter 21 on the 21st. That made me smile.

“Do you think Fernando’s going to be alright?” Kimi asks once they’re home again. He knows it’s just a glitch, but glitches can be bad and he doesn’t know if what happened to Fernando before might have made things worse.

“Sure he’ll be alright,” Britta says with a smile, but she knows they have no way of finding out until the next assessment. It isn’t like anybody who would actually know speaks to them anymore, and they definitely can’t go and find out for themselves.

Kimi nods, apparently satisfied with the answer, and falls onto the sofa, turning on the television. The assessment hadn’t gone as badly as he’d been expecting it to. He’s even improved a little since last time, which Kimi hadn’t thought was going to be possible at Ferrari.

He hasn’t done quite as well as Sebastian has though.

Sebastian’s bouncing about in the kitchen, where Maurizio is letting him have ice cream before dinner _again_ , and Britta has given up trying to stop him. They just need to keep him sweet until she can figure out a way out of this, and it isn’t like she would have been able to stop him even if she _had_ tried.

“I need to go and do some work now,” Maurizio says, placing the bowl on the dining table and taking out a chair for Sebastian to sit down on. Grinning, the kid does so, taking his spoon and digging in. “But you did really well today. Keep it up.”

He ruffles Sebastian’s hair and smiles at Britta when she comes in. Britta makes sure Sebastian is focused on his ice cream before glaring back as Maurizio passes. At least he’s going out, giving her a chance to breath. She doesn’t care what he’s doing as long as it’s nothing to do with her family.

“Well done today Seb,” she says, once the front door has shut behind Maurizio. “Do I get a high five?”

Seb’s grin widens even more and he nods, raising his hand for Britta to smack it.

“Now I just have to tell the monster that isn’t really a monster,” he says. He _knew_ the monster that isn’t really a monster was lying when he said they weren’t family. They _have_ to be family. His powers wouldn’t be getting better if they weren’t.

He jumps up, ready to race out of the door, when Britta grabs hold of his hand.

She hasn’t had a chance to speak to Sebastian about the things he sees since “the monster” because “the monster that isn’t really a monster”. She’s always been curious about her son’s power, never really knowing what it was he was actually seeing, but now things have changed and she knows she has to get to the bottom of it, and make sure Maurizio doesn’t if it’s something that might harm Sebastian.

“Seb,” she says, slowly, sitting her son back down in the chair. “What is the monster?”

“It’s not a monster,” Sebastian says with a little shrug. “I don’t know what it is though.”

Britta nods. Sebastian has been able to see this… _thing_ the entire time she’s known him, but how he’s been talking about it recently hasn’t been how he used to talk about the thing. Something’s changed.

“How do you know it’s not a monster?” she asks.

Sebastian shrugs again. He doesn’t really remember. All he knows is that it definitely _isn’t_ a monster. He doesn’t really know if it’s nice or not, though. It must have done _something_ nice, otherwise Sebastian would still think it’s a monster, but it keeps saying they’re not family and being… weird, and Sebastian doesn’t like that.

“Ok,” Britta says. She isn’t really getting anywhere with this. “What does the monster-.”

“It isn’t a monster, Britta,” Sebastian says.

“What does the thing say, when you’re with it?” Britta asks.

Sebastian tries to remember what the last conversation had been like with the monster that isn’t really a monster. It’s hard to remember that far back, it had to be at least a week ago now.

“It’s weird,” Sebastian says. “It said I wasn’t safe and I have to go. It says a lot of things like that and sometimes it doesn’t say anything really.”

“Why doesn’t it think it’s safe here?” Britta asks.

“I don’t know,” Sebastian says with a sigh. “And when I told it to go away, it said I would have been hurt. I don’t know what that means either.”

Maybe the monster that isn’t really a monster is protecting him, but Sebastian has no idea who it’s protecting him from. All it seems to do is say weird things and walk around. It’s not like it’s a super hero or anything. It’s not even cool. Just creepy and scary.

“Alright,” Britta says. “Can you see the thing now?” Maybe she’d be able to talk to it or something. She doesn’t know, but she’s got to try and figure out what this thing is, before Maurizio does.

Sebastian shakes his head. “It isn’t here. It doesn’t like to come indoors.”

The monster that isn’t really a monster comes indoors _sometimes_ , but Sebastian can’t remember the last time it did.

“Alright,” Britta says, again, nodding. Sebastian had spent so long being scared the monster was going to come and get him as a child, which doesn’t make sense if the thing doesn’t even come inside. “Alright, Seb, next time the monster comes, you have to come and get me, alright. Straight away.”

“Why?”

“I need to have a word with it.”

 

“Claire.”

Rob grabs hold of Claire’s wrist before she can follow the boys into the house. Nobody said much on the way back from the hospital. The boys seem content knowing Fernando’s ok and Susie spent the entire journey on her phone. Rob’s been watching Claire though and, whilst she had been momentarily distracted at the hospital by the glitch, it’s clear she’s gone back to thinking about whatever it was that was on her mind at the assessment, and Rob needs to deal with that.

“What?”

“What’s wrong?” Rob asks. “And don’t tell me nothing, because I know it’s not.”

Claire pulls her hand away from Rob, glancing back into the house, but the boys have already disappeared up the stairs and Susie is nowhere to be seen either. She quietly closes the door, knowing she’s going to have to tell Rob.

“It’s Susie,” Claire says. “I think there’s something wrong with her.”

“Susie?” Rob pulls a face that would have made Claire laugh if she weren’t so stressed out. “Well, yeah, Susie’s a teenage girl. Of course there’s something wrong with her.”

“She’s sick,” Claire says. She knows she is.

“Sick?” Rob repeats, pulling the face again. “Claire, Susie is the only one of our kids who _isn’t_ sick.”

Claire shakes her head. “I don’t know. But it’s been happening for a while and I’ve only just noticed and what if…”

“Calm down,” Rob says, placing his hands on Claire’s shoulders. There are tears in her eyes already and Rob needs her to calm down and tell him what’s going on before she has another break down or something. “Come on, deep breaths.”

“Piss off,” Claire whispers, but she does as she’s told and takes the deep breath. “Susie’s powers came through really late, didn’t they? _Really_ late, like Valtteri’s did. And when they came through, they came through all at once, didn’t they? She shouldn’t have her physical power yet. You know that.”

“Girls develop powers differently to boys,” Rob says, gently, but Claire just shakes her head again.

“They don’t,” she says. “I spoke to Gerhard. Carmen developed her power just like the boys did. And those girls at Bruno’s assessments? There’s something wrong with Susie, and I never realised. I’m such a useless mother.”

“You’re not,” Rob insists. “Come on, we don’t know there’s anything wrong just yet.”

He says that, but he can see where Claire’s coming from. If it were one of the boys, he would have been just as worried as Claire, but she’d always said girls developed powers differently to boys, and he had to trust her on that. If that wasn’t true, maybe Susie really was ill.

“There’s something wrong with her,” Claire says. “Before… look what Pastor did to Valtteri. Susie was with Pastor for _years_ longer than Valtteri was. Pastor made her sick Rob and I never realised.”

“It’s ok, this isn’t your fault,” Rob says, gently.

“Then who’s fault is it?” Claire snapped.

“Calm down,” Rob says, slowly. He’s still holding onto Claire’s shoulders, taking deep breaths in the hope it will encourage her to do the same. “We’ll talk to Susie, alright. And maybe a doctor. We’ll get this sorted out. And it is not your fault. This is nobody’s fault.”

Claire doesn’t react for a little while, her eyes on the floor, then she nods.

“Claire!” Felipe calls from the doorway. “Frank wants to speak to you.”

“I’ll be in in a minute,” Claire says, wiping her eyes and taking another deep breath.

“We’ll sort this out, Claire,” Rob says, gently, taking his hands off of her shoulders. “I promise.”

 

Frank is sat at his desk when Claire comes up. She’s tried to sort herself out the best she can, but she knows she still looks a state. She _is_ a state…

“Are you alright?” Frank asks before Claire can say anything.

“Yeah,” Claire lies. “Yeah, I just got myself worked up over nothing.”

Frank nods, but it’s clear he doesn’t believe her. Thankfully, he doesn’t ask any more questions, offering Claire a seat and waiting for his daughter to sit down before starting.

“I think you should talk to Adrian,” he says.

“About what?” Claire asks, slowly. She does talk to Adrian. Or as much as she can. It’s difficult to get the teenager out of his shell and Claire doesn’t want to push him too much, knowing how fragile he might be.

Frank waits for her to figure it out herself, but it’s clear Claire has no idea what he’s talking about.

“The Reversal of Power,” he says. “How you were and how you… coped.”

“No,” Claire says, definitely. She can’t even consider doing that. She wants to help Adrian, she really does, but she cannot do that. They _tried_ talking to people: friends, family, therapists. They tried all that right after it happened and it didn’t work. She doesn’t want to go back and scoop all that up all over again. It’s bad enough as it is now.

“I really think it would help him, Claire,” Frank says. “He needs to know that he’s not alone. That someone really does understand how he feels.”

“Then why don’t you do it?” Claire suggests. She doesn’t want to hear about how good it will be, the usual rubbish about it helping the pair of them. She’s doing fine- well… she’s sort of doing fine. She can’t ruin that now. Not whilst she has the kids to worry about.

“Because,” Frank says. “I really think it would be best to come from you.”

“He already talks to you,” Claire says, quickly. There’s a whole list of reasons her father can talk to Adrian instead of her.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Frank says, gently. “But I’m not going to pretend that this won’t be the best thing for Adrian. He’s worried about a lot of different things at the moment, and knowing he can go through what he’s feeling with someone who’s felt the same would really help that.”

“Dad, I can’t,” Claire says, quietly.

“Alright then,” Frank says, nodding. That isn’t going to be the last of it though.


	22. The Meeting at the Agency

Nico’s been up all night worrying. He knows he should have slept, that being tired at this meeting might only make things worse, but that hadn’t helped. He’s not _scared_ , not of doing it, at least. But what if this isn’t like how he thinks it is? What if they turn around and tell him Niki or Toto needs to be there? What if they just turn around and tell him nobody else will want him? There’s any number of reasons why this could just be another false hope, and Nico doesn’t know what he’s going to do if that turns out to be the case.

In the morning, he waits until he can hear movement down the stairs before getting up, not wanting Toto or Niki to know he’s been up all night, or why. Lewis knows about the meeting, of course, and Nico’s fairly sure his brother is going to insist on coming again or something, but he doesn’t really mind that much. Let him come. As long as he doesn’t try to stop anything, Nico’s fine with Lewis being there.

Lewis is the only one in the kitchen when Nico comes down, already sat at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him. He gives Nico a small smile as he comes through to make his own breakfast, and is about to say something when Toto rushes in, trying to put on his school tie and muttering something about being late. It is late – by Toto’s ridiculous standards – and Nico doesn’t say anything as the Austrian rushes through.

He _knows_ this meeting isn’t going to be the end of things. It’s just the first meeting in a long line of meetings. But Nico can’t help but feel a little put out. If this _were_ his final time with this family, he’d hope for a little more of a send off. Not that he could blame Toto for not knowing what was going on…

“Are you alright?” Lewis asks when Toto leaves.

“I’m fine,” Nico says, pouring milk into his breakfast. His hands are trembling so much the milk sloshes over the edge and he mentally groans.

“If you don’t want to go today, you don’t have to,” Lewis tells him.

“And what else do you propose I do?” Nico snaps. “Shut up and put up?”

“Tell Niki and Toto,” Lewis says.

“Tell Niki and Toto what?” Niki asks, coming into the kitchen. Both boys freeze, looking very much like rabbits caught in the headlights, and a smirk tugs at the edges of Niki’s lips.

“That Nico wants a new mattress,” Lewis lies, spitting out the first thing that comes to mind.

Nico stares at him as if he’s insane.

“A new mattress?” Niki asks, turning to Nico for an explanation.

“Yeah,” Nico says, slowly. “Mine is… lumpy… and I couldn’t sleep.”

Lewis mouths sorry whilst Niki has his back to him but Nico doesn’t even bother reacting. He just hopes Niki won’t press them for more.

“Alright,” Niki says, the smirk on his face growing a little. “What are you two planning on doing today?”

“We’re going out,” Lewis says.

“Together?” Niki asks, a little surprised. Lewis nods. “Well, do not kill each other and that should be fine.”

“We won’t,” Nico promises with a smile.

 

The boys appear at the back of the laundrette this time. Lewis would prefer to do the walk down the street again, in the hopes that something might stumble out of his mouth that will stop Nico doing this, but he doesn’t think that’s very likely, and Nico requests the back of the laundrette anyway, so Lewis has to oblige.

Nico’s a lot less nervous now as he climbs the fire escape to the door at the top. Or maybe that’s a lie. He’s not nervous about what lies inside, or about having the wrong place. It’s more about the outcome of the meeting. It’s easier to hide the nerves this time, though, and Lewis follows him in silence.

At the top, Nico presses the doorbell, and they only have to wait a couple of moments for the woman from their last visit to answer the door.

“Ah,” she says, as if she suddenly remembered the meeting. “Would you like to come inside sweetie?”

Lewis shivers in disgust. He really doesn’t like any of this. The woman gives him the creeps- the whole set up does. But he says nothing, and Nico heads inside, Lewis following close behind him.

The hallway is the same as it had been the last time they had come. The woman smiles sickeningly at the two of them and invites them to sit down again whilst she goes and makes sure everything is ok. Lewis falls down onto the sofa, trying to figure out what it is about this place he doesn’t like so much, but Nico stays stood, glaring at the clock and willing the woman to hurry along. When she isn’t back after five minutes, he sits down beside Lewis, his arms folded.

“Are you alright?” Lewis asks. He’s running out of time to come up with something to say. He knows they’re not going to let him walk away from their family today – or he’s pretty sure they’re not, anyway – but he doesn’t want Nico to even take the next step.

“I’m fine, Lewis,” Nico says. He just doesn’t want to be sat here waiting. He never likes to be sat around waiting. He’s been waiting for something like this for _months_.

“It’ll be alright, you know,” Lewis says. “I mean, if this doesn’t work out. We can go and talk to Toto and Niki. We’ll figure something out. We’re your family Nico.”

“You are _not_ my family,” Nico hisses. He knew bringing Lewis along was a bad idea, but the amount of time it would have taken to travel here, it wasn’t really possible to get here without him.

“Whatever,” Lewis says. “I still care about you.”

“Sure,” Nico mutters.

Lewis just rolls his eyes. Nico is saved from any further questions when the woman comes back into the room, holding the leather bound diary she had written Nico’s appointment in the last time they came.

“So it’s Nico Rosberg,” she reads. “From the Mercedes family.”

Nico nods and stands again, hoping this isn’t going to take too long.

“Alright,” she says, still smiling. “We have you booked in with one of our consultants. I’ll take you to him now.”

Nico goes to follow the woman, but she stops when Lewis stands.

“I’m afraid only the scheduled power possessor is able to come into the meetings,” she says. “Agency policy.”

“I’m his brother,” Lewis says. He knows he cannot let Nico in there on his own. There’s something wrong with this entire set up and he needs to be there for him, to protect him from whatever it is that’s making him feel so uneasy.

“Agency policy,” the woman says again. “If you like, I can have someone come out here to chat with you whilst Nico is with the consultant?”

“My brother ain’t seeing anyone without me,” Lewis says, standing between Nico and the woman.

“It’s a little too late to care now, Lewis,” Nico hisses, stepping past Lewis and following the woman out of the hallway.

The woman doesn’t say anything as they go into another corridor, this one even narrower and longer than the first. It’s plane though, just the two walls and a few doors on either side of them. Nico counted three doors until the woman finally stopped outside the fourth. She tucks the leather bound diary underneath her arm as she fiddles with the keys for the door, eventually unlocking it and seeing Nico inside.

The room is small, with one man sat behind a desk. He looks up and smiles when Nico comes in, quickly getting up to come and shake the teenager’s hand. Nico smiles back and tries to make sure his hand shake is firm, but his hands have begun to shake now.

“Nico this is one of the people working at the agency,” the woman says as Nico takes his hand away.

“A consultant?” Nico asks.

“Not exactly,” the woman says. “Our consultants don’t work on site. We have so many which cater to power possessors individual needs. It’s easier for us to travel to them than it is for them to travel to us. Have you ever teleported before Nico?”

“Yeah,” Nico says. “My brot- I mean, my friend is a teleporter.”

“Is he now?” the woman says, nodding. The smile on her face grows a little. “Well, we shouldn’t have any problems then.”

 

Lewis falls back onto the sofa, his arms crossed. He doesn’t like this at all. He knows they can’t be doing anything _bad_ to Nico, so much. He knows his brother can look after himself if they _are_ doing something bad. But it’s what they’re saying to him Lewis is worried about. He’s got to come up with a way of convincing Nico he’s part of their family, and he just can’t do it. The last thing he needs is for some complete strangers to be working against him. It isn’t going to help.

Or maybe…

Maybe the agency isn’t as bad as Lewis thinks. They’ll tell Nico that he’s already found his family and Nico will just have to deal with it. Lewis doesn’t believe it. Not for a second. The woman is too weird and he still hasn’t figured out what it is about this place that he doesn’t like, but there has to be a chance.

When the door opens again, Lewis jumps up, but the woman returns alone.

“Where’s Nico?” Lewis asks. This is getting worse and worse by the second and any hope this place isn’t completely screwed up goes out the window. He just wants to get his brother and get out.

“With our consultant,” the woman says, that awful smile on her face. “Can I get you anything whilst you wait? Maybe something to drink? He might be a while.”

“I’m fine,” Lewis says, sitting back down.

“I’ll get you some water,” the woman says. Lewis rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t get a chance to say anything before she’s disappeared again. He’ll take the water, he decides. Maybe it’ll calm him down enough for him to be able to come up with an idea to get them out of this mess…


	23. Family: Definitition

Lewis wakes with an awful headache and, when he sits up, it feels as if his head is spinning. He can hear noise coming from downstairs, but there’s usually somebody up and awake before he is, so that doesn’t surprise him too much. When the spinning doesn’t stop, Lewis lies back down in the hope that going back to sleep might help a little. When he closes his eyes, everything stops spinning, but the headache is still there and he knows he’s going to have to get up and find something to make it stop.

Niki’s in the living room when Lewis comes down, squinting against the light from the window that makes his headache worse.

“So you did make it back last night,” he says, following Lewis into the kitchen.

“What?” Lewis asks, barely paying attention.

“Last night,” Niki says. “You were back pretty late.”

Lewis just nods, taking the painkillers from the basket on top of the fridge and going to fill up a glass of water. He doesn’t remember much about the night before. He doesn’t… actually remember _anything_ from the night before. If he did, he’s pretty sure why he has this headache.

“I take it Nico made it back alright too,” Niki says. “You did not leave him wherever you went to, did you?”

“Of course not,” Lewis says, but he can’t be sure that’s true. The last thing he remembers is being offered the glass of water whilst he waited for Nico.

Lewis heaves a little as the painkiller goes down his throat, taking another gulp of water to help it down. He’s never really been that good at taking tablets and is glad he never normally needs to.

“Good,” Niki says. “Well, if you can get him out of bed before Toto gets home, that would be nice. He was worried sick.”

“He’s always worried,” Lewis says. “We’re both fine.”

“I know that,” Niki says. “You are trying to convince the wrong person.”

Lewis rolls his eyes and is glad when Niki goes back to whatever he was doing in the living room. Maybe it would be a good idea to just go back to bed…

 

Fernando’s only been home a couple of days, and Andrea’s still a little nervous about pushing him. The teenager insists he’s fine, and is more enthusiastic than ever after sorting things out with Jensen, but Andrea’s still worried. He’s scared of any lasting effects from the glitch, and doesn’t want to be the one to put Fernando back in hospital.

But Fernando is still cheerful when they’ve finished the first tutoring session after the glitch. They’ve gone over Fernando’s non-phys power, but Andrea insists he’s still not in the right frame of mind for them to start work on his physical power again. Fernando doesn’t seem to mind so much, even if he had tried to insist he was fine.

When he’s finished, Fernando heads down the stairs and outside, where Kevin is trying to push himself on a little swing set. Andrea follows him down, trying to get the courage to speak to Ron. The parent is sat on the sofa in the living room, his work spread out in front of him, and Andrea thinks that he probably shouldn’t be disturbed, but he knows that’s just him trying to come up with an excuse.

“Hello,” he says, standing a little way inside the room.

Ron looks up and gives him a nod before going back to his work. They don’t usually greet each other in any other way.

“I was wondering…” Andrea says, coming a little closer. “Could we talk?”

Ron looks up from his work again, clearly confused, then nods.

Andrea doesn’t say anything for a little while, wringing his hands together. He’d barely been able to tell Rob what he had been thinking about, how is he supposed to bring the subject up with Ron?

“Well?” Ron asks.

“I… I have been thinking,” Andrea begins. Maybe he should have left this for another day, when he’s figured out how he’s going to spit it out, but he knows how important it is for the kids to be around their family and, if he _is_ family, then they need to know that as soon as possible.

“And?” Ron asks when Andrea doesn’t continue.

“I think… maybe… there is a connection?” Andrea says, his voice getting quieter and quieter with each syllable. He doesn’t look at Ron, not wanting to see his reaction, but at the floor instead. Ron doesn’t say anything for a while and Andrea closes his eyes, sure he’s blown it. He’s just a tutor, and now Ron’s going to think he’s not suitable to tutor Fernando and maybe he isn’t if he’s coming up with stupid ideas like this but Andrea knows he can’t leave the teenager.

“A connection?” Ron says, eventually, and Andrea looks up. He’s a little surprised to find Ron doesn’t look horrified or disgusted, but knows that doesn’t mean everything’s going to be ok.

He nods.

“With Fernando, I take it,” Ron says.

“Yes,” Andrea says. “I know… I understand how it works. That I would have to have it with Jenson and Kevin too.”

“And me,” Ron points out, standing.

“Yes,” Andrea says, quietly, his eyes jumping back to the floor.

Andrea doesn’t see Ron nod, or see him come over. When the silence drags on he closes his eyes again, just wanting this to be over now.

“Really?” Ron asks, making Andrea jump a little. He hadn’t realised they’re so close.

Andrea takes another deep breath, trying not to fidget, and nods.

“Well,” Ron says, nodding. “That explains a lot.”

 

“All I am saying is that there are enough knives,” Romain says, angrily.

“And all _I_ am saying is I do not understand why you are so bothered about this,” Pastor snaps back. Sometimes it feels like everyone just wants to argue with him all the time. He hadn’t even been doing anything when Romain came in to start this argument, just sitting in the living room, minding his own business.

“Because,” Romain says. “It is disgusting to have bits of butter in the jam.”

“Like you can even taste it,” Pastor mutters. He looks across the Gerhard, who’s pretending to not be able to hear the conversation, even if he is sat in the same room as them. “Gerhard?”

“You could at least try to not get butter in the jam, Pastor,” Gerhard says, in a tone that says he’s not getting into this conversation any more than he already has.

Pastor groans loudly and stands, marching past Romain to go upstairs.

“Where are you going?” Romain asks, stopping him on the stairs.

“Is there really anything you would like me to do about the jam right this second?” Pastor asks.

Romain frowns at him, knowing there’s nothing his brother can do but still not happy with the outcome of their argument. Pastor just shakes his head and leaves Romain at the bottom of the stairs, marching up and trying to make as much noise as possible. By the time he’s up the stairs. Romain has gone from the bottom, probably to go and make his own jam sandwich where he’ll put the stupid jam on top of the butter anyway.

Pastor stops on the landing, realising he left the magazine he had been reading down the stairs and deciding if it was worth going back down for when he heard a small sob come from the room across the hallway.

A little confused, Pastor crosses the hall and gently pushes open Carmen’s bedroom door a crack. There’s another sob, and Pastor can see his little sister sat on the bed, her back to him but her shoulders shaking with the small sobs. Pastor gulps and looks around, but there’s nobody else there and he knows it’s him who’s going to have to do something.

A little cloud appears above Carmen’s head, rain drizzling onto her forehead, and she spins around. Her entire face is puffy and red, tears staining paths down her cheeks. Pastor sighs, the rain cloud disappearing as he comes into the room and closes the bedroom door behind him. Carmen tries to wipe her eyes, but it just pushes more tears to spill down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Pastor asks. He’s way out of his comfort zone here, not a single clue how he’s supposed to comfort a little girl, but someone’s got to do it, and she’s his _sister._

“I miss Mama and Papa,” Carmen says, quietly. She knows she’s being stupid, because she has a new family now, and it’s definitely better that she’s here with them. Then she can control her powers and she can make her parents proud, but she still misses them. A lot.

“Ah,” Pastor says, sitting on the bed beside Carmen and putting an arm over her shoulders. Carmen falls into the hug, wiping her eyes and runny nose on her brother’s shirt and making Pastor cringe a little.

“I just want to go home,” Carmen says, quietly, her voice shaking as she speaks.

“I know,” Pastor says, rubbing Carmen’s back. “It is not always easy to leave your family behind.”

He knew it hadn’t been a good idea for Carmen to have her biological parents at the assessments. She’s too home sick for that and it must have just reminded her of what she’s missing. Maybe he can have a word with Gerhard later. Ask Carmen’s biological parents to stop coming for a while whilst she settles in a little.

“You don’t get home sick, though,” Carmen says, remembering the conversation they had had before the assessment.

“No,” Pastor says, shaking his head.

“Did you get home sick when you were little?” Carmen asks, looking up at him. “Like me?”

“No,” Pastor says again. He really doesn’t want to get into a discussion with Carmen about why he isn’t home sick, but the inquisitive look in his little sister’s eye suggests he’s not going to get away without the conversation. “Your Mama and Papa are very nice, aren’t they?”

Carmen nods quickly, pulling away from Pastor so she can look at him whilst she listens to the story.

“They’re the nicest people in the whole world,” she says, smiling a little. That’s why she misses them so much.

“Right,” Pastor says. “Well, my Mama and Papa were not such nice people.”

That’s the understatement of the century, he thinks, but there’s no need to traumatise his sister with tales of what his family were really like.

“But… but they have to be nice people,” Carmen says. “Why were they not nice?”

Pastor shakes his head. How is he supposed to explain this to a little kid? “Where I am from, it is not such a good thing to be a power possessor. People think that, if you are a bad person if you are a power possessor. And my mama and papa thought these things too. They thought I was a bad person.”

He doesn’t like to think about it. If there’s one good thing about being passed from one family to another in the power possessing world, it’s that none of the families he’s been with have treated him like _that_. Even when they had every reason to.

“That’s not very nice,” Carmen says, pulling a face. “I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

She sits up on her knees and pulls Pastor into an awkward hug. He just waits for it to finish but, when Carmen pulls away, there’s a smile on his face.

“I’m glad somebody thinks that,” he says, quietly.

“Will you help me practice my power?” Carmen asks, sweetly, her tears from before apparently forgotten.

“Depends,” Pastor says. “You have to promise me something first.”

“Promise you what?” Carmen asks, suspiciously.

“You have to promise me, that if you are ever sad again, you will come and get me,” Pastor says. “And then I will make you not sad. Yes?”

“Alright,” Carmen says.

“You promise?” Pastor asks.

Carmen giggles. “I promise.”


	24. Difficult Conversations

Lewis still isn’t feeling quite right, and he can tell Nico isn’t feeling right either, but this isn’t the normal kind of “not right”. His brother isn’t the same person who had been complaining about everything and anything last week. They did something to him, Lewis knows that, but it’s made him… happy.

Nico’s acting as if there’s nothing wrong, and Lewis knows he has to hide how he’s feeling from Toto and Niki, but it’s almost believable. He hasn’t had a chance to talk to his brother about what happened during his meeting, too exhausted most nights to do anything but sleep and, if the tutors aren’t in, then Nico is out for most of the day.

Lewis makes sure to set his alarm extra early so he can catch Nico before he slips out of the house. He doesn’t even know where his brother goes, but he’s got a feeling it’s something to do with the weird agency.

“Nico!”

It’s early in the morning, barely six o’clock, and Nico is already about to head out of the door.

“Wait a couple of minutes and I’ll go with you,” Lewis says, hopefully.

“I’d rather go by myself, Lewis, but thanks,” Nico says with a smile that looks far too friendly for how his brother has been acting for the past couple of months.

“Where are you going?” Lewis asks, coming down a couple more steps, ready to run if Nico tries to escape because they _need_ to talk about this.

“Nowhere important,” Nico says, the smile still there and beginning to hurt Lewis’ head a little.

“Can it wait then,” Lewis says. “I need to talk to you mate.”

Suddenly Lewis’ head feels as if it’s about to split open and he has to sit down, his vision filling with little black dots.

“You don’t look very well, Lewis,” Nico says. “Maybe you should go back to bed. I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”

Lewis nods. He doesn’t feel very well and, even though he knows he probably isn’t going to get a chance to talk to Nico later, going back to bed _does_ seem like the better idea to him right now. He turns around and heads back up the stairs, letting Nico sneak out of the house like he does every day.

 

“She seems fine,” Rob says at breakfast.

He’s been watching Susie a little closer than usual over the past couple of days. He’s sure Susie’s alright. Maybe she didn’t develop her powers the normal way, but there doesn’t seem to be any negative out come from it. There’s nothing to worry about. Convincing Claire that there’s nothing to worry about is going to be a little more difficult.

“Maybe she’s just good at hiding it,” she says. None of the kids have come down for breakfast yet, even if it is almost mid morning. Both Claire and Rob are used to it by now. Rob had hoped he might be able to talk to Claire about… whatever the other week had been about, but he hasn’t yet built up the courage to bring it up again. Or to deal with the woman he knows is going to be on his hands when he does.

“Why don’t we ask her?” Rob suggests. “If there is something that’s making her feel bad, I’m sure she’ll tell us about it. She wouldn’t want to hurt herself, would she?”

“Like she would tell us anything,” Claire mutters.

“Your dad then,” Rob suggests. She knows how close Susie is to her grandfather. If she’s going to tell any of them, it’ll be him.

“I don’t know,” Claire says. She hasn’t really said more than she needs to to her father since the day of the assessment.

“We have to do something,” Rob says. “We don’t do anything, you’re just going to worry yourself sick over it. We’re going to have to talk to Susie about it, aren’t we? Or do you have some plan where we don’t?”

Claire shakes her head slightly, trying to come up with an argument, but she knows there isn’t one.

“Alright,” she says, quietly. “But I want to be the one to talk to her.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rob asks.

“I’m her mother, Rob,” Claire says, nodding. “I have to.”

 

“Boys, could you come in here please!”

Fernando frowns when the call comes up the stairs, putting the book he was reading down. The tutors are supposed to be coming round today, but that’s not for another hour or so. Andrea had asked him to do some reading before the next session and Fernando hadn’t _forgotten_ about it, he’d just decided it would be best to do it at the very last minute.

But not going down the stairs will only make Jenson and Ron start worrying about him again, and Fernando doesn’t want that to happen, so he goes down to see what’s going on.

Ron, Jenson, Kevin, and Andrea are all in the living room. Jenson is sat on the sofa with a very confused look on his face, with Kevin his usual bouncing self beside him. All four of them look up when Fernando comes in.

“What is… going on?” Fernando asks slowly.

“Come in Fernando,” Ron says, waving for Fernando to sit beside his brothers. Fernando quickly sits down beside Kevin, Jenson placing a hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder to try to get him to stop bouncing, but it doesn’t work.

“Right,” Ron says. “Before we begin, I just want to make it clear that nothing’s going to happen right away, whatever we decide, alright?”

Andrea gulps. He hadn’t thought it would be possible to be any more nervous than he had been when he spoke to Ron, but now he knows it is. It very definitely is. Speaking to Ron had been done in private, and if it hadn’t worked out then Fernando would have never needed to know. Now, if Jenson and Kevin decide there isn’t a connection, then Fernando will know there’s absolutely no chance of this happening.

Or he’ll convince himself he doesn’t belong in this family, but Andrea doesn’t even want to think about that.

“Ok,” Jenson says when nobody says anything. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on now?”

Andrea and Ron exchange worried glances and Fernando feels his stomach flip. He’s done something wrong. He doesn’t know _what_ , but it must be something.

“Andrea thinks he is connected to us,” Ron says. He’d talked to Andrea about how was best to approach the boys about this, and they both decided being as upfront as possible is the best idea.

“A connection?” Jenson asks, still a little confused.

“Really?” Fernando asks. He wants to grin, but he also doesn’t want to show how disappointed he would be if he’s understood this wrong. “Are being serious?”

“Yes, Fernando,” Andrea says. “But we need to know what you all think first.”

“This is brilliant!” Fernando says, grinning. It’s all he’s wanted since he and Jenson visited Ferrari. That and for Jenson to not hate him. He’s already gotten his second wish, and now he’s about to get his first. “I told you!”

“Well,” Andrea says. “It does still depend on what Jenson and Kevin think. This is about the whole family.”

Fernand’s smile falls a little as he realises what this means. Jenson and Kevin have to agree. He looks over at his brothers, half wanting to know what they’re thinking, half scared they’ll be against this.

“Jenson?” he asks quietly.

“What are you thinking?” Ron asks.

“You’re sure about this?” Jenson asks, sitting forward.

“I think there might be something there,” Rob says. He’d been feeling strange for months and this seems like a reasonable explanation for him.

“And you?” Jenson asks Andrea. He wants to know that they’ve actually thought this through. None of them need any more instability.

Andrea nods. “As sure as I can be.”

“Jenson, do you feel anything?” Ron asks.

Jenson shrugs. He’s not entirely sure. He’s not had a new connection for years and has been pretty happy where he is. But he can see how important this is for Fernando, and it isn’t going to do them any harm, is it?

“We could give it a go,” he says.

“What about you, Kevin?” Ron asks with a grin, knowing the youngest boy would go along with anything as long as it didn’t upset anything. “Do you want a new parent?”

“You’re going away?” Kevin asks, a little confused.

“No, I’m not going anywhere,” Ron says, laughing lightly. “You’re going to have two parents.”

“Two?” Kevin looks between Andrea and Ron, things clicking into place inside his head. Then he turns to Jenson and Fernando, wanting to know what they’re thinking, but they’re both smiling too. Well, two parents can only be better than one parent. A grin breaks onto his face and he nods.

Fernando is beaming, having to use all his willpower to not jump up and wrap his arms around Andrea. This is all he could ever want. It is impossible that anything could ever go wrong now.


End file.
